There's No Rest For the Wicked
by Gaia Lao
Summary: Sequel to "Reflection" He said he would return, and he did. Now Daemon has kidnapped Yolei and demands that Ken come to him as the Digimon Emperor. Is Ken willing to sacrifice his kindness to save her? Kenlei. Chapter 11's up!
1. Evil Revived

There's No Rest for the Wicked

Disclaimer:  *punches in a time card* Here we go again.  Digimon's not mine.  It's owned by some rich people that I don't feel like naming.

A/N: Happy Easter, y'all! Well, finally here's my sequel to "Reflection." You really don't have to read my first story before reading this, since some of the major points will be clarified later, but it is recommended if you don't want to be confused in the first few chapters.  This story will be a little more action-oriented than "Reflection," FYI, so to all those Kenlei fans, yes this will be a Kenlei, but the romance aspect will be toned down for most of this. (Sorry!)  But other than that, hope you enjoy this. 

G: *clears throat* Didn't you forget something?

Gaia: Hmmm, you're right.  For those readers who haven't read my note at the beginning of "Reflection," I will be using the English names for the characters and digimon that have English names. 

Gwen: *sees G growling* I don't think that's what she meant.

Gaia: Um, how about a warning that I haven't watched that many episodes and/or can't remember a lot of them?

Gwen: *sees G fuming* I don't think that's it either.

Gaia: I don't like to use cuss words?

G: (ready to explode and shouting) You forgot to introduce us!!!

Gaia: *raises an eyebrow* I don't see the point, but okay.  Readers, meet Gwen, my grammar check, and G my…um, er…other useless muse.  There, happy?

G: (flatly) Ecstatic.

***

Chapter 1- Evil Revived

Over the brightly lit district of Odaiba, black clouds mysteriously began to gather, completely covering the quarter moon that loomed in the night sky.  They seemed to be migrating to a certain apartment building on a now tranquil street, but no one paid any heed, not even the residents of the said apartment building.

"Hey Hawkmon, take a look at this," called Yolei Inoue to her partner digimon, all while not taking her eyes off her computer screen, "I've got an e-mail from Izzy.  He says that 868 more kids with D-3's were discovered today, mostly in America, France, and India.  Wow, that brings our count to exactly ten times the number of Digidestined there were four years ago when we fought Malomyotismon."

Yes, four years had passed since that fateful battle in the Digital World.  The older original Digidestined had left for colleges across Japan and around the world, while the younger of the original Digidestined all decided to attend the same high school in Odaiba--except for Cody, of course, who went to a nearby junior high.

In that time, Izzy Izumi and Yolei Inoue had formed the Digidestined Society, an organization that kept track of all the children who received Digivices across the world, and the two were currently sharing co-Presidency.  

After replying to Izzy's message, Yolei found that another e-mail awaited her.

All of a sudden, "Oh my gosh, Hawkmon!" squealed the bearer of the Digieggs of Love and Sincerity. "Ken sent me another e-mail!  He says, 'Happy Fourth Anniversary of the first time you declared that you loved me.  Yours always and forever, Ken.'  Awww, isn't that so sweet?" she cooed.  

Then a thought crossed her mind.  "But our anniversary isn't until tomorrow."  The lavender-haired girl checked the time the message was sent.  "It looks like he sent it at eleven-fifty, so I'm guessing he hoped that I'd read it tomorrow morning," she continued to think out loud.

Unnoticed, a dark shadow silently crept up behind her.

"Hmmmm, I wonder if he's still awake.  Maybe I should send him an early anniversary message, too.  I can probably get in another shot about me beating him on our last history test.  What do you say, Hawkmon?" asked Yolei from the chair at her desk.  

When she didn't her a reply from the rookie-level digimon, Yolei curiously turned around in her chair.  "Hawkmon?"

But what greeted her eyes was not what she expected.

The small bird digimon lay unconscious in the center of her room, the feathers around his neck disheveled and bent out of shape.

"Hawkmon!" The girl's glasses-rimmed eyes went wide, and she immediately ran over to tend to her partner digimon.  "Hawkmon, are you okay?  Say something!"

"Yolei Inoue," boomed an ominous voice from behind her.

The girl in question's blood ran cold.  

'No, it's not possible!' she fearfully thought. 

Still kneeling down beside the motionless digimon, Yolei gulped and stiffly turned her head around to find the source of the voice—and saw someone that nearly made her heart stop.

The teenage girl opened her mouth to utter a name almost long forgotten, but she strangely couldn't find her voice.

"I think it's a wonderful idea to send a message to Ichijouji," declared the malicious being who slowly started to approach her.  "Unfortunately you won't be around to write it."

With that, the crimson figure raised a clawed hand towards her, and the world instantly became black.

~~~

Having his heart ripped out of his chest and his stomach gutted by a rusty dagger would have been nothing compared to the pain he was going through.  Heck, being struck by lightning would have felt good compared to this.

After finally coming home from his extremely tiring soccer practice, Ken Ichijouji had immediately turned on his computer and went online to check his e-mail.  Little did he expect that the message from his loving girlfriend's e-mail address was sent by his worst nightmare.

Standing in front of his computer in mute pain, Ken reread the accursed e-mail for the billionth time since he had opened it.  It was almost as if he wanted to burn the message into his brain.

_Ken Ichijouji,_

_I have taken the Digidestined, Yolei Inoue, hostage.  If you ever want to see her alive again, meet me in the Digital World twenty-four hours after this message was sent at the coordinates shown below.  Come alone and as the Digimon Emperor.  If you do not comply with any part of this, she will die, and I will simply keep taking Digidestineds until you do.  Remember, you have only until 24 hours after this message was sent._

Daemon 

At first, Ken had desperately tried to convince himself that this was most likely a practical joke from his girlfriend, but the e-mail following that one ironically destroyed his fleeting hopes, considering who it was from.  

_Ken,_

_Where are you?  I've been looking for you all afternoon.  Yolei's gone!  Hawkmon says she's been kidnapped.  E-mail me back if you have any clue where she might be._

_T.K._

"Daemon, you monster!" Ken muttered darkly under his breath.

The incensed boy would have punched a hole through his monitor if it weren't his most convenient way of getting to the Digital World.

For the millionth time in a half hour, he checked the time the previous e-mail was sent.

_12:00 A.M., Tokyo time._

Darnnit! 

He quickly darted his eyes once again to the clock on his desk.

6:06 P.M.

Only five hours and fifty-four minutes left.  

Why didn't he figure out that something was wrong when Yolei failed to show up at school today? Why he couldn't he have read his e-mail earlier? How come he didn't think of checking up on her until _now? _

Ken tore his stinging eyes away from the screen and began to meander about his room, lost in thought.

He couldn't believe it.  Just yesterday, the light of his life was poking fun at him for doing worse than her on their last history test, and now she was gone in an instant.  How could he have let this happen?

Letting out a guttural growl, he slammed both fists into a wall and let his head fall between them.

"It's all my fault!" 

One fist was pulled back but soon made contact with the wall again.

"She's gone because of me! First Sam…then Wormmon…and now her…" A lump formed in his throat, and he could feel hot tears starting to trickle down his face.  

The indigo-haired boy let them flow.  He didn't care anymore.  All that mattered to him at the moment was Yolei.

He lifted his head and raised pleading eyes to the empty ceiling as if searching for a God.

"Why do I keep losing people?" he hoarsely croaked out.

As he lifted a throbbing hand to give the wall another beating, a glint of something on his desk caught his eye.

Ken slowly turned his forlorn face in that direction, and his gaze rested on a silver, oval frame encircling a picture of him and Yolei.  Four years ago it had been a mirror given to him by the same lavender-haired girl but had since been turned into a picture frame at her suggestion.

_"And see," Yolei had said when she'd given it to him, __"it has these two angels on the top that will always watch over you and be by your side every time you look in the mirror."_

Ken's heart crumbled at the memory.

"But where were the angels that were supposed to be watching over you?" he grimly whispered to no one.

He let his upraised hand fall into a weak slap against the wall before sinking to the floor before it.  For several minutes he just sat there, huddled up in the corner of his room with his knees pulled tightly to his chest and his forehead resting on them.

'I should have been the angel watching over you.  I should have sensed that you were in danger.  _Where was I when you needed me?' he castigated himself mentally._

Suddenly a wave of bitterness overcame him as a thought crossed his mind.

"That's right," he angrily growled to himself, "Wormmon wanted me in bed by midnight last night, and I've been too busy with school and practice all day. Stupid soccer, stupid school, stupid, fussy, mothering worm…"

The Digidestined of Kindness suddenly shot his head up, his eyes wide.  

"Wait, what am I thinking?  How could I say such things about Wormmon?"

As if on cue, the aforementioned digimon crawled into the room.

"Ken, your mom needs your help in the kitchen.  Apparently a small digimon like me can't—Ken, what's wrong?" Wormmon questioned as soon as he saw his partner sitting at the far end of his room.

"Nothing, Wormmon," he hastily said, wiping his eyes dry and getting up.  He instantly made a break for the door. "I just need to step out for a few minutes that's all."

The lanky boy wildly grabbed the sweater off his doorknob and dashed towards the front door as soon as he had exited the room.

"Ken? Ken! Where are you going? It'll be dark soon," Wormmon cried after him.

"I need some time alone to think.  Don't worry about me," he replied a little more harshly than he had intended.  Then, in the calmest voice he could muster, he called to his parents, "I'm going for a walk in the park.  I'll be back soon."  With that, Ken was out the front door and down the hall before Mr. and Mrs. Ichijouji could find anything to say.

"Ken…?" whispered a worried Wormmon.  Curious, the rookie-level digimon, scurried over to his partner's desk.  "Now what could have happened to make him so upset?"

It didn't take long for him to find out.  The moment he had crawled onto his partner's chair Wormmon read the message left on the boy's computer screen.

Almost as shocked as the boy was by the e-mail, the only thing the little green digimon could find to say was "Uh, oh."

~~~

The cool spring breeze on the dark-haired boy's sweaty face would have felt good if he didn't have so much on his mind.  Above the district of Tamachi, the sun was dipping slowly down into the horizon, turning the sky a blazing orange-red, and children were already leaving the local park.

Ken, on the other hand, wasn't about to leave anytime soon.

After sprinting all the way over here from his apartment to vent his anger, he decided to take a contemplative walk along the pond to calm down. 

He silently kicked a pebble into the small body of water and caused the still surface to ripple. 'What am I going to do?' the Digidestined of Kindness thought despondently,  'I want to get Yolei back so badly, but it looks like the only way I can do that is show up as the Digimon Emperor. But I'm not him anymore; Yolei and I made sure of that!  And Daemon's no fool--he'd see right through me if I just posed as the Emperor.'

Ken let out a frustrated growl and punched a nearby tree, which shook under his forceful blow.  The boy's knuckles stung even more than they already did and turn scarlet, but that was the least of his worries now.   

Sighing, Ken leaned his back against the same tree and looked down at his feet.  'If I were the Emperor, maybe I would be able to think of a way out of this,' he pondered wistfully, 'but I can't become him again.  He was a tyrant Yolei helped me put away for good.'

For a moment there was silence, but then…

**'Or so you think.' **

Ken jerked his head up. "N-no, it could possibly…"

**'Oh yes it could my dear _Emperor.'_**

The boy's eyes landed on the pond, and, a thought crossing his mind, he instantly headed for it.  Once he reached the edge, he kneeled on the bank and fearfully peered into the reflecting waters.

Shaded indigo eyes stared back at indigo.

"Not again…" Ken gasped.

**"You took the words right out of my mouth," his reflection commented,**** "literally and figuratively." He smirked.  ****"Let's see, recognition of me as a separate entity, check; dark emotions, check; possession of body by me, soon to be check."**

"Oh, no you don't." The boy started to stand up to back away. "I made a promise with Yolei never to become you again."  He was ready to run as far away from there as he could when the reflection said something that pierced his heart.

**"Not even to save her life?"**

That stopped Ken in his tracks.  The Digidestined of Kindness simply stood there, his head still looking down into the pond at the Emperor.

**"Face it.  This is the only way to get her back from Daemon."**

"No!" Ken nearly shouted, luckily not drawing attention from the passersby.  "There's got to be another way."

**"Yeah, run like a scared coward and let the ditz die; try to dress up as me and watch her die; have a Bakemon pose as me while you try to save her, utterly fail because you underestimate Daemon's intelligence and watch her die anyway…ooo, didn't think of _that one did you?" the image of the Emperor toyed with him._****  "Sure, there's lots of other ways to solve your problem, but not all of them will be very pleasant."**

Ken clenched his teeth and balled his hands into fists in fury, but the Emperor simply continued to prod him.  **"Come on--look at your options.  Your best chance is letting me take over.  What, you don't think you're strong enough to defeat me once you've satisfied Daemon? Oh yeah, that's right, you probably aren't, but didn't you once say, 'Well, that's a risk I'm willing to take!'****?" he quoted in Ken's own voice.**

Ken turned away from the pond, but the voice of his dark side continued to taunt him in his mind. 

'Will you stop being so stubborn and think for once?  What's more important to you, a promise with that meddlesome girl or her life?' Then a little less harshly, the voice in his head soothed, 'Listen, Kenny boy, I'll just take over for a little while—I swear.  You can always regain control again like you did last time; it's not as if this will be permanent.  You know there's no other way to save her.'  

The Digidestined of Kindness didn't want to admit it, but his dark side was right.  There was no other way.

Sighing in surrender, he turned back to his reflection in the water and hissed, "Fine, I'll let you take over—but only for a short time, you understand?"

**"Perfectly." The Emperor smiled maliciously.  **

In the distance, the sun had just set, and the sky was turning a dark shade of midnight blue.

"So, what do I have to do to give you control?"

**"That's no problem.  One more dark emotion should do the trick.  How about experiencing hate?"**

Ken hesitated.** "The one emotion you couldn't evoke from me before?"**

The image in the water nodded.  **"Come on.  We don't have all night.  It's the fastest and easiest emotion to experience.  Just think of someone to hate."**

There was no hesitation on Ken's part for this one.  "That's simple.  I hate Daemon."**   **

That was all the Emperor needed to hear.

~~~

Back at the Ichijouji residence, an extremely agitated Wormmon was pacing back and forth on his tiny pods and debating whether or not he should tell Ken's parents about what had happened.  The little green digimon had already sent out e-mails to Ken's friends alerting them to the danger his human partner and Yolei were in.  All he could do now was wait.

It wasn't long before he heard the front door open and slam shut.

"Ken, are you okay?  Where have you been?" the rookie-level digimon heard Mrs. Ichijouji ask.

'Ken's back!' Wormmon joyfully thought.  He immediately scurried out of the bedroom to go greet his best friend.

"I told you before, _Mother, I just went for a walk in the park.  Now if you'll excuse me, I have some very important business to attend to," the dark-haired boy replied curtly._

The insect digimon froze in the middle of the hallway.  It had been years since Ken had used that tone of voice.

"Ken, honey, don't you even want some dinner?" his mother nearly pleaded, even more distraught.

"I'm not hungry!  Now leave me alone!" the youngest Ichijouji called back harshly as he quickly made his way towards his room.

Wormmon darted back into Ken's bedroom.  He knew better than to be within hitting distance when Ken talked like that.

"Ken, what's the matter with you?" Mr. Ichijouji sternly called after him.  "You're going to make your mother cry if you keep saying such things.  Ken, are you listening to me? Ken?!"

By this time the teenage boy had ducked into his room and locked the door behind him.  As he made his way to his still active computer, he muttered under his breath, "Troublesome insects."

Just as he sat down at his desk, a knock came from his door.

"Ken, I think we need to have serious talk about your attitude," called the voice of his father.

The boy sighed.  He'd better find a way to get rid of him fast so he could start on his work.

Trudging over to the door, he took a deep breath and opened it just wide enough for him to stick his head out.

In the most apologetic voice he could summon and putting on the saddest look he could contort his face into, he whimpered, "I'm sorry, Dad.  I've just been under a lot of stress lately at school and soccer.   You know the season's about to start soon, and my teachers are assigning so many tests next week.  I just needed a break from it all, so I went to the park to clear my head.  Please don't be angry with me."

Mr. Ichijouji's heart melted.  "Aw, I'm not mad at you, Ken.  I can remember how hard it was when I was your age, too."

Inside Ken's head, his dark side thought, **'This had better not be the start of a lengthy father-son story.  I don't have the time for this.'  **

Reaching in and patting his shoulder, the elder Ichijouji said, "I'll just let you get back to your work while I go tell your mother what really was the matter."

The dark-haired boy smiled. "Thanks, Dad."  With that, he popped his head back in and quickly closed the door.

After he made sure that his father was gone for good, he said to himself proudly, "I really should have been an actor.  That performance was worthy of an Oscar, if I do say so myself."

He was about to go back to his computer when a creaking sound from his bunk bed drew his attention.

Surprise clearly written across his face, the tall boy scowled at the green digimon on his bed.  "You!  How long have you been up there?"

Out of habit, Wormmon cowered back a little, but his concern for the Digidestined of Kindness drove him to crawl boldly forward and state, "Long enough.  What have you done with Ken?"

The boy below him smirked.  "Nothing really…Let's just say he had me sub in for him when he realized that he couldn't take on Daemon as himself."

He left the perplexed digimon where he was for now and out of curiosity went to check his mail.  As he suspected, there were four new messages waiting for him—one from each of his "friends" with the subject heading "RE: Yolei's been kidnapped!!!" 

Not even bothering to open them, he deleted all of them with a few clicks of the mouse.  "I see someone's been playing stool pigeon," he commented nonchalantly.

Opening a new program on his computer, the boy continued. "No matter—this just means I'm going to have to tweak my plans a little to take them into account, but for now," he said, briefly checking his clock, "I've got some preparations to make and only three hours, fifty-nine minutes, and twelve seconds to make them in."

He heard the sound of a few more creaks coming from his bed.

"And don't think you're going anywhere, worm," he growled, not even turning his head.  "One more peep from you to anyone about this, and Kenny boy gets into an 'accident.' Understand?"

The creaking stopped.  

Wormmon sat petrified at the top of the ladder leading to Ken's bed.  There was nothing he could do but watch as the revived Emperor sat casually typing at his computer. 

***

G: That was only the first chapter?!  What, are you writing a novel or something?

Gaia: Well, sorry, but half of it was already in the preview.  How long did you expect it to be?

Gwen: Shorter than this.

Gaia: Well, don't worry. I'll be back to my old habits by the next chapter.

G:  You mean writing poorly, cutting off the story in the wrong places, inserting too many flashbacks…?

Gaia: *smacks the back of G's head* No, writing shorter chapters of course!

G: *rubs bruised head* Ow, what are you trying to do, decapitate me?

Gaia: *smiles wickedly* Is that a request?

G: *pushes Gwen forward* For her.

Gwen: O_O!!!


	2. Battle Preparations

There's No Rest For the Wicked

Disclaimer: Hey, I have something new to add to the list of things I don't own. Neither Digimon nor the concept of DigiChats is mine.

Gaia: Look! I get some practice in writing DigiChats in this chapter.

G: Ack! This better not turn into a habit. You know overdone those things are.

Gwen: No offense DigiChat writers. ^_^;

Gaia: Pardon the names, format of the chat, etc. I haven't been in that many chatrooms before.

G: Big surprise.

Gaia: Oh puh-lease, it's not like I don't have a life online or anything.

G: Just keep telling yourself that.

Gaia: That's it! *sets up the cannon and stuffs G into it*

G: Hey! It was just a jo--. *gets blasted to Mars*

Gaia: Aw, only Mars. Rats! I knew I should have put in more powder.

Gwen: ^_^;;;

***

Chapter 2 - Battle Preparations

T.K. Takaishi checked his e-mail for what had to be a record number of times that day. But still, there no response from Ken.

As soon as T.K. had come home this afternoon, Hawkmon had nearly bowled him over, telling him frantically that Yolei had been kidnapped. Ever since then, T.K. had been searching for the indigo-haired boy all day. 

He knew that because Ken now went to the same school as them, the Digidestined of Kindness would communicate with them in person during the day and through chatrooms at night. Hence, the former genius found no point in carrying around his D-terminal and would wait until he got home to check his e-mails. 

So, that meant if T.K. wanted to find Ken as soon as possible, he would have to go back to the school, but when he returned to campus, the blonde was forced to wait until Ken's soccer practice was over to have any chance of speaking to him. Then, the minute T.K. went to go get a drink of water, Ken had left for home, oblivious to his friend's desperate search for him. 

The Digidestined of Hope didn't even want to remember what a nightmare it was trying to find him at the bustling Odaiba train station before he had given up and went back home to send the elusive teenager an e-mail.

Sighing, he returned to the chatroom the rest of his friends were in.

**__**

Wingsofhope is back

****

Wingsofhope: no word from him here. any luck, Kari?

****

Angel_of_Light: No. I called his place from my cell phone, but his parents say he's locked up in his room and doesn't want to be disturbed.

****

davisthecourageous: i say we just go into the digital world, kick daemon's butt, and rescue yolei 

****

Angel_of_Light: Gee, Davis, I didn't know you cared so much about Yolei. :-P 

****

davisthecourageous: what, me, no way

****

Wingsofhope:sure, Davis, we believe you :)

****

davisthecourageous: it's just that ken wouldn't be the same if she weren't around to cheer him up with that big mouth of hers, tc 

T. K. shook his head. Even though Davis had learned his name by now, the mahogany-haired boy would still jokingly call him anything but T. K.

**__**

KendoKid: But getting back to the matter at hand, isn't your plan kind of vague, Davis?

****

Wingsofhope: of course it is, Cody. it definitely wouldn't work, especially since Wormmon didn't give us a clue as to where exactly Daemon would be at midnight. 

****

davisthecourageous: then let's go over to ken's place right now and ask

****

Wingsofhope: come on, Davis, we can't just go barging in there like uninvited guests. 

****

KendoKid: T.K. has a point. We should at least wait for him to respond to our e-mails. 

****

Wingsofhope: then together we could form a plan to rescue Yolei 

****

davisthecourageous: like that'll happen any time soon!

****

davisthecourageous: look, i know ken inside and out, and he'd rather take on daemon by himself than risk losing yolei or one of us.

****

davisthecourageous: our best bet is to go over there 

****

davisthecourageous: get daemon's location

****

davisthecourageous: drag ken with us into the digital world

****

Angel_of_Light: Davis! How inconsiderate of you!

****

davisthecourageous: ???

****

Angel_of_Light: Ken lost his one true love just now. He probably needs some time alone. We should wait until he's ready to open up to us.

****

davisthecourageous: i'm sorry kari i'm sorry kari i'm sorry kari i'm sorry kari i'm sorry kari please forgive me!!!!

At his desk, T.K. sweatdropped. He couldn't believe that Davis still had a crush on her after all these years.

"I don't know…Maybe Davis is right for once," commented the orange digimon hovering at the T.K.'s side. "Ken never has been the type to come to us with his problems." 

The blonde turned to face the little digimon who had decided to land on his shoulder. "I know he's right about Ken, but let's at least give Ken a chance to come to us. We still have a few hours left, so until then maybe we can come up with some battle strategies against Daemon, or at least a backup plan just in case…" T.K shut his mouth. He didn't even want to think about it. 

However, Patamon finished his thought for him. "Just in case Ken ends up turning into the Emperor again to save her?"

T.K. nodded his head solemnly. "Let's just hope he doesn't resort to that. Then again, I don't know if Ken even can. He's been over the Digimon Emperor thing for some time now; it doesn't seem possible that he can change back just like that." The tall boy accompanied this last part with a snap of his fingers.

"Like you said, let's just hope not," Patamon said as he and his partner turned their attention back to the chat room, which was now filled with hundreds of "i'm sorry kari"'s, courtesy of Davis. 

~~~

Standing on the sandy beach, the Demon Lord silently gazed across the Digital World's vast ocean. Underneath the ebony night sky it almost reminded him of the bleak prison he had been kept in all these years. 

Almost.

He watched as a hulking form in the water created an enormous splash by swiping a huge arm underneath the surface. It seemed as if his new minion had exterminated another pesky trespasser who had had the misfortune of coming to the wrong place at the wrong time. 

At least in the Dark Ocean, there weren't as many pitiful, annoying digimon wandering around…and even better, no pesky, loud-mouthed--

"Yo, horn head!"

--humans.

He narrowed his cold eyes and turned to face the bearer of the Digieggs of Love and Sincerity, who was currently in the bony grasp of a Skull Greymon. Of all the humans in the Real World, how could Ichijouji possibly have feelings for this one?

"What is it now, you infernal Digidestined?" he snarled.

Not flinching at his tone of voice, which should have intimidated any normal human, Yolei hotly answered, "Well you _do_ want me to live until Ken gets here, right? You could at least give me something to eat! I've been starving all day. And another thing, your little pet dinosaur here doesn't seem to understand that I've needed to go to the bathroom ever since I woke up a few hours ago. I'm practically wetting my pants here."

Daemon let out a low growl. Waving a clawed hand, he ordered the Skull Greymon, "Take her somewhere far from here and make her be quiet. I don't care how you do it, but make sure you come back with her--alive--before Ichijouji gets here. Understand?"

Yolei could have sworn that she saw the skeleton digimon's face twist into a more sadistic look and an evil gleam appear in his empty eyes.

For the first time since she had regained consciousness and realized her situation, the lavender-haired girl was frightened. "What do you mean 'make me be quiet'?"

The Demon Lord let out a rumbling chuckle and turned back to face the ocean as his new lackey stomped off to obey his orders. 

Soon the roars of the waves drowned out the girl's frantic jabbering.

Just a few more hours, and all that he desired would be his.

Just a few hours…. 

~~~

After hours of debating whether he should dash for the door or wait until the Emperor had gone, Wormmon finally decided that any attempt to help Ken was better than just sitting around doing nothing.

The insect digimon was about to jump down and make a break for the door when the dark-haired boy stood up from the desk.

Every ounce of courage that Wormmon had mustered was gone like a puff of smoke, and he cowered back on the bed.

He simply watched as his possessed partner opened his desk drawer and pulled out a rectangular gray device that hadn't been used in years.

The boy pocketed the D-terminal and activated the Digiport program on his computer, all the while making one last check that everything was in order.

As he raised the black D-3 to the computer, the former Digidestined of Kindness sternly commanded without turning his head, "Remember, worm, don't even think of telling anyone about this. If I find out you've blabbed our little secret, Ken will have a nice little _trip_."

Hearing no response from the meek digimon, the Emperor muttered under his breath, "I'd give the insect two minutes before he starts squealing." Then aloud he called, "Digiport open!"

In a flash, he was gone, and Wormmon was left alone to start his tortuous debate anew.

~~~

T.K. anxiously drummed his fingers on the table and took another look at the clock. 

11:32 P.M., one minute since the last time he had checked.

He turned back to the same chatroom he had been in all this time.

**__**

davisthecourageous: that's it! i've had it with all this waiting

****

davisthecourageous: i'm going over to his place right now and no one's gonna stop me

****

Wingsofhope: Davis, wait!

****

davisthecourageous has logged off

****

KendoKid: Do you think he's smart enough to figure out that it's faster to go through the Digital World than to take the train?

****

Angel_of_Light:…

****

Wingsofhope:…

****

KendoKid: N/m. I don't know why I even bothered to ask.

****

Angel_of_Light: Hey, I got an e-mail from Wormmon!

As soon as he read that, T.K. immediately went to check his mail and found that Wormmon had indeed sent them an e-mail.

__

Guys,

I'm sorry this took so long. I'll explain everything later. Right now you've got to go the Digital World and help Ken. He's not himself anymore!

"Oh, no! It's as bad as we thought!" T.K. exclaimed.

__

Hurry, the coordinates of Daemon's location are below.

Wormmon

****

Wingsofhope: you heard him, guys. let's go!

****

KendoKid:What about Davis?

****

Angel_of_Light: Wormmon will probably have him meet up with us in the Digital World as soon as he gets to Ken's place.

****

Wingsofhope: then it's settled.

Closing the chat room and activating the familiar transportation program, T. K. raised his D-3 to the computer screen and yelled out, "Digiport open!"

However, instead of a bright, white light shooting out of the computer as usual, absolutely nothing happened.

"What's wrong with this thing?" T. K. looked at his D-3 and raised it to the screen again. "Digiport open!"

Still, nothing happened.

Suddenly, T. K. and Patamon heard a muffled beeping sound coming from the tall boy's top desk drawer. He instantly opened it and pulled out his old D-terminal, which registered he had a new e-mail.

Flipping it open, he read, 

__

Hello Digi-do-gooders, 

Having a bit of trouble with your Digiports, hmmmm? I figured that tattling worm might spill the beans, so I programmed my computer to attach a little computer virus to every e-mail sent from it. Don't worry, the virus isn't too lethal. It'll just lock your Digiports until 12 midnight. In the meantime, I have some business to attend to here in the Digital World. 

Yours truly,

The rightful ruler of the Digital World.

"Ken!" The Digidestined of Hope hissed.

No sooner had he said that when the phone rang in the hallway.

"Hello?" he heard his mom sleepily answer. "Oh hello, Kari…Yes, he's here, just a mom—"

Mrs. Takaishi didn't have a chance to finish because T.K. had just then appeared and ripped the phone out of her grasp.

"Hello, Kari?" he hurriedly asked. The Digidestined of Hope tried as best he could to tune out his mom scolding him about his rudeness and at the same time listen to Kari.

__

"T. K., did you get the same e-mail?" Kari questioned from her end of the phone.

"Yeah, and I'm guessing you can't get into the Digital World either."

__

"Mm, mm." T.K. could imagine Kari shaking her head as she mumbled this. 

"Looks like we need to find another way in. Do you have another computer nearby you can access a Digiport from? I'll grab Cody and see if we can use Yolei's computer."

__

"Yeah, we just installed a program in our neighbor's computer after his daughter got her digimon. I think I can get in through there."

"Great! I'll meet you at the T. V. to Yolei's Digiport."

__

"But T. K., what about Davis? Do you think he got the e-mail, too?"

"I don't think so. Davis stopped carrying around his D-terminal about the same time Ken did. But if he's going over to Ken's place, he's sure to hear about what happened from Wormmon. Then Davis can access the Digiport program on Ken's computer and join us at Daemon's location."

__

"Okay, I'll send Wormmon an e-mail with my D-terminal telling him what happened and then call Ken's parents, just in case. I'll see you in a few."

"'K, see ya." Both children hung up their phones at the same time.

"T. K." His mom had calmed down a bit after sensing that something was wrong. "What's going on? Does it have to do with the Digital World?"

"I'll explain later," T. K. hurriedly replied, going back into his room to grab his D-3 and D-terminal, not to mention Patamon, and then rushing out the front door. 

"Wait!"

T. K. skidded to a halt halfway out the door and turned around to face his mom, who wore an extremely worried look.

She held out a coat to him and gently said, "Whatever it is, be careful, but don't forget to come back before school starts in the morning."

A warm smile spread across the blonde boy's face. "Thanks, Mom. Don't worry—I will." He took the coat and was out the door with Patamon flying by his side before Mrs. Takaishi could blink.

The brunette woman shook her head and walked slowly over to the apartment door. She watched as her son disappeared down the dark hallway and whispered, "Good luck, T.K." before she quietly closed the door after him. 

"Some things never change," she sighed.

~~~

"Hey, Ken, you in there?!" Davis shouted, banging on the door to the Ichijouji apartment.

His short, blue digimon partner tugged on his pants leg. "Davis, has Ken gone deaf?"

Davis paused a moment to ask puzzledly, "I don't think so. Why?"

"Well if he hasn't, I certainly have from all of your yelling."

"Very funny, Veemon, but now's not the time for making jokes," Davis scolded his partner. "We've go to get in there and help Ken out."

Just then the door opened and an anxious Mrs. Ichijouji appeared. "Oh, Davis, it's you. Kari called and told us everything, and since then we've been trying to open Ken's door, but it won't budge. I'm so worried about him, now that he's—"

"Sorry, Mrs. Ichijouji, I don't have time to chat." He ran past the babbling woman and made his way to Ken's room, where Mr. Ichijouji was trying to use various keys to unlock his son's door.

"Oh, Davis," he said quickly looking up. "Have you heard--?"

"Yeah, Ken's locked himself in, but I'm about to fix that." With one of his best soccer kicks, he pounded the door open and dashed through. "Ken!"

"Davis!" cried a muffled insect-like voice from behind the door he had just kicked open. 

The brown-haired boy swung the door back and sweatdropped at the site of a very flat Wormmon squished against the wall behind the door. "Oops, sorry, Wormmon. I guess I don't know my own strength."

He pried the green digimon off as Wormmon chattered, "I tried to unlock the door myself, but I was never good at tasks that involved things taller than me. Enough of that, though, we've got to get into the Digital World and help Ken. The others are already there, but he's—"

"Don't worry. I'm on it," he interrupted the insect digimon. He then proceeded to pull up the Digiport program and raise his D-3 to the screen. "I'll help him beat Daemon, no sweat. Just lead me to him."

"But Davis he's become—"

"Digiport open!" The teenage boy yelled as a bright light engulfed him and the two digimon at his side.

***

G: (Panting) Hey, I thought you said this was going to be as short a chapter as the ones you wrote in "Reflection."

Gaia: It is. It's a short as one of my longest ones.

G: *face-vaults*

Gwen: By the way, what are you planning to do to Yolei?

Gaia: Pretty much the same thing I did in my previous story.

G: Geez, why do you pick on her so much? It's not like she's your favorite character. You're supposed to be torturing Ken, or Sam at least.

Gaia: Yeah, well, the way I see it, if she's going to be the one that ends up with my Ken-chan, she's going to have to earn it.

G: …

Gwen: That actually makes sense.


	3. Penumbra

There's No Rest For the Wicked

Disclaimer: I neither own nor will claim to own Digimon, its characters, or its storyline in any shape or form whatsoever. *scribbles down signature on sheet of paper in front of a bunch of lawyers*

Gaia: *smacks forehead* D'oh! You're right, Fordina. Nancy's a sandy blond. Sorry 'bout that. I was probably too sleepy at the time I wrote that. 

G: Or too stupid.

Gaia: *glares at the muse* You're one to talk; you--wait a minute, weren't you the one who told me she was a brunette?

G: *whistles innocently*

Gaia: *yells in exasperation* I can't even trust you to help me with something this minor?! Argh, that's it, missy! I've had enough of your shenanigans. You're suspended from helping me write this story. 

G: *raises an eyebrow* That's it? Wow, if I can get off this easy…

Gaia: *picks up G and stuffs her into a cannon* AND while you're on suspension, you might as well spend it on Neptune. *fires cannon and watches G disappear from sight* That's more like it. 

A/N: Since some of the digimon in this chapter haven't been in the anime, I had to improvise the descriptions of the attacks, so bear with me. However, the names of the attacks should be correct (if they weren't already dubbed), as should the English names for some digimon, since I pulled them from Megchan's Encyclopedia, which is now down, but thank goodness for web archives.

***

Chapter 3 - Penumbra

During the day, this beach might have been the perfect place for young, energetic digimon to play games with their partners, or a place where older digimon started a long day of hard work, carrying in supplies from trading rafts. But now, at night, it was a deserted wasteland, a whipping post for the dark waves that periodically smashed against it.

Brushing away straight strands of indigo hair with his black-gloved hand, Ken silently took in the entire deserted scenery and scanned the site with cold blue eyes. To his right was a dense forest, which began abruptly where the beach stopped. To his left was the roaring ocean whose end even he wouldn't be able to see in the foggy darkness. And before and behind him was nothing but endless dunes of grayish-brown sand.

Ken once again adorned the Emperor suit of old, except this time his violet-tinted shades were missing, and his indigo hair was flat, not spiky as it had been before. On one side of his belt was hooked a curled-up black whip, one stronger and deadlier than the one he had used when he was younger, and on the other side hung his dark D-3.

Though it didn't seem like it would make much of a difference in this place, the regally dressed boy took three steps forward so that he was at the exact coordinates Daemon had given him.

Counting down the seconds in his head, Ken put all of his senses on high alert, trying to detect any early signals of the Demon Lord's presence. 

Then, at exactly midnight, still sensing no one, the boy called out, "Daemon, I'm here just like you asked. Now stop fooling around and come out from whatever rock you're hiding under!"

The sands behind him began to stir, and instinctively, Ken quickly turned around, his hand immediately flying to the whip at his side. 

Out from a dark, swirling hole in the ground, came the aforementioned virus digimon whose searing gaze seemed to penetrate the very depths of the boy's soul.

'This isn't gonna work; he's liable to detect me within you,' the Digidestined of Kindness thought to the side of him in control.

****

'Pipe down, or he definitely will,' Ken's dark side mentally ordered.

As soon as Daemon had fully emerged, the sands beneath him returned, and for a few long seconds, human and digimon simply stood there, each measuring the other up.

Finally, the mega-level digimon broke the silence. "Ken Ichijouji--it's been a long time."

"Not long enough," the teenage emperor was quick to retort. 

Daemon brushed off the cliched insult and continued insinuatingly, "I see you haven't changed much. You're still as impertinent as ever…but I can't help wonder…" He began to circle the boy. "…what is it about you that seems so different from the last time you were the Digimon Emperor?"

'This isn't working…' Ken thought in a nervous, singsong voice.

****

'Shut up…' his dark side replied in the same manner.

Not losing his cool for a second, the boy smirked and said aloud, "It's the hairdo, right? Never really did like the old one, so I decided to change it. But let's skip the pleasantries, Daemon." He swept one side of his cape away for emphasis. "You asked for me, and now you have me, so what is it that you want?"

A low chuckle rumbled from Daemon's hooded face. "A better question is, what is it that _you_ want? A certain Digidestined perhaps?" 

With a wave of his hand, the distant sound of crunching trees was heard, and the ground began to shake. Not long after, a Skull Greymon stomped out of the nearby forest and loomed over them carrying a tattered girl in his grasp.

'Yolei!' Ken mentally exclaimed. 

The bearer of the Digieggs of Love and Sincerity was still alive all right, but her clothes were torn in various places, and blood stained the parts that weren't in shreds. The orange helmet she usually adorned had long since been knocked off, allowing her disheveled, long hair to flow freely over her ashen face. 

Ken wanted to run to her so badly--to whisk her out of that savage beast's claws, to hold her tightly in his arms, to tell her everything was going to be all right--but the Emperor firmly stood his ground.

****

'Stay still! Do you want to blow our cover?'

Seeing that he might only make things worse, Ken reluctantly did as he was told, but not without a cold, white anger building up inside of him.

In the meantime, a half-conscious Yolei had managed to open up her eyes wide enough to see the familiar figure of the boy she loved down below her. Despite the beating she had taken from the skeleton digimon, her face brightened at the sight of him. However, the look didn't last for long as her eyes rested upon his attire.

"Ken…" she moaned weakly, a sinking feeling overcoming her. "No…no, you promised…" She recognized the combination of hair and clothing as the same kind he had donned the last time his dark side had taken over. 

The boy sharply turned his head away from her and turned his focus back on Daemon, who was chuckling in amusement.

"Can't stand to see her like this, Ichijouji? Well, she'll be in even worse shape if you don't come quietly with me." A black, swirling hole in the sand appeared between him and the boy. "What's it going to be?"

Ken's head lowered, and his hands clenched into fists. There was a long pause between them before he finally said in a deadpan voice, "Fine have it your way."

The Demon Lord burst out in maniacal laughter. "Excellent!"

"Go ahead and torture her some more," the indigo-haired boy nonchalantly added, raising his head confidently.

"WHAT?!" was the surprised exclamation that simultaneously came from Daemon and Yolei.

"You heard me; you can even kill her off for all I care."

'What are you doing?!' the Digidestined of Kindness thought in a panicked tone.

****

'I never did say that I would bring her back alive. Now if you'll excuse me…' The Emperor mentally shoved Ken down and did his best to ignore his light side's furious protests. "I was just disappointed that you were stupid enough to think I actually had feelings for her."

No matter how terrible the pain that Skull Greymon had inflicted on her was, the pain in Yolei's heart was a thousand times worse. Even though she knew deep down that it wasn't the real Ken talking, it still hurt to hear those words come from the same lips that had many times sworn eternal love to her.

"The only reason I came was to find out why you called me here," the teenage emperor continued as he coolly stepped around the black portal in the ground. "Why would a mega-level digimon be interested in a human being, perfect though I am, like me?"

With a small motion of the dark lord's hand, the hole in the sand disappeared, but strangely, Daemon seemed unshaken by this sudden turn of events. "It seems like I've gotten far more than I expected." 

Daemon approached the boy once more, but this time the lithe human jumped back, his muscles taunt and ready and his gloved hand clasping the handle of his drawn weapon.

"Don't mock me, boy. Not even with the Dark Spore's power could you inflict a scratch on me."

"True enough," the teenage human conceded, "but that doesn't me I can't make it more of a nuisance for you to catch me unless you tell me what you want."

"Fine, if it will make this easier, I'll tell you." Daemon halted his approach before continuing. "My objective hasn't changed, Ichijouji: I still want that Dark Spore in your body."

"Then why the elaborate kidnapping? Couldn't you have just abducted me instead? It would have saved you much more trouble."

"Yes, I could have done so if I wished, but I didn't know how much had changed since I was here last. I didn't even know for certain if the Dark Spore was still active, much less still inside you after all these years." 

"So you kidnapped the ditz in hopes that I'd go ballistic and prove that I still had an active little spore within me." It wasn't a question.

"Of course, and now I see that I was correct. The Dark Spore still lives inside you; your presence here proves it, doesn't it, Emperor…or should I say, Ichijouji's dark side?"

From within the deep recesses of his mind, Ken's protests grew louder. 'He knows! That's it--deal's off. Now give me my body back!'

On the outside, the Emperor stopped to smile an extremely devious smile. 

****

'I don't think so, Kenny boy. You wouldn't want our "pets" turning on us without me in command, now would you?'

If Ken had had control of his body, his face would have turned a deadly white instead of retaining its particularly evil smirk.

Curling his whip back up and taking a step backwards, the Emperor stated, "Thanks for the info, Daemon. That's all I wanted to know." Then, he tilted his head upward and shouted, "Show time, boys!"

"Cold Flame!"

An icy blue fireball shot out from the dense forest and hit Skull Greymon from behind. The skeleton digimon let out a pained roar and reflexively let go of the lavender-haired girl, who was then sent hurtling forward from the momentum of the blast.

"Death Arrow!"

Immediately afterward, a black streak flew from near the same source of the previous attack and headed straight for Daemon with extreme accuracy. The mega-level digimon was able to block the attack with his hands, however, but not without being driven back a few meters towards the ocean.

The Digimon Emperor didn't have time to smirk in pride as heard a scream rapidly approaching his direction. He turned around and barely managed to catch a falling Yolei, who was almost hysterical from the sudden flying lesson.

"Are you all right?" was the concerned question that came from the boy's mouth before he could stop it.

Regaining her wits as quickly as she could, Yolei looked up into midnight blue eyes with her hopeful, scarlet eyes and squeaked out, "Ken?"

In the meantime, two sinister-looking digimon had emerged from the thick woods and engaged in battle with the furious Skull Greymon. The first was a tall, blue humanoid digimon who appeared to be on fire, but a freezing cold fire rather than a blazing hot one. The second was a much larger, black creature with a single, giant eye and short red wings. On one arm of each was clasped a Dark Band, one of the Emperor's newest creations, which looked like a Dark Ring but was as long as a Dark Spiral and stronger than both his old models of controlling devices.

The appearance of these two digimon caused the fleeting, relieved sparkle in the Emperor's eyes to disappear and replace it with his former iciness. 

"Ken is gone," the boy answered. Before Yolei could protest, he abruptly dropped the girl onto the hard sands of the beach and glared down at her. "I, the Digimon Emperor, am now in control."

A low growl from Daemon's direction forced them to postpone any further debates on the ownership of Ken's body.

"A Blue Meramon and a Ghoulmon?" the demon digimon snarled. "Impressive, Ichijouji; I never thought that you were capable of controlling digimon as powerful as them, but even they won't be enough to defeat me. You didn't seriously think I would come here with a Skull Greymon as my only bodyguard?"

Not far from where the two humans stood, a thick, black fog began to form. From its dark core came a tall, winged, goat-like digimon.

The Emperor clenched his teeth, "What the devil…?"

"You're not too far off, Ichijouji. This," Daemon said, pointing to the newly arrived digimon, "is Mephismon, an ultimate Fallen Angel digimon." Mephismon grunted in acknowledgment. 

****

'Darn, this isn't good. Even with a mega along with an ultimate on my side, it won't be enough to defeat the both of them _and_ Daemon.' The Emperor remained seething as Mephismon joined the fray against his Dark-Banded forces.** 'With my two digimon revealing themselves at the same time, I should have expected him to pull out his backup this soon. Now if only mine would get their goody-two shoes butts over here…'**

"Ken! Yolei!" shouted someone from above.

The scowl on the Emperor's face was immediately replaced by a relieved smirk.

"T. K.! Kari! Cody!" yelled back an overjoyed Yolei, who was waving the trio and their digimon down.

Pegasusmon, with T.K., Cody, and Armadillomon on his back, and Nefertimon, with Kari and Hawkmon on hers, landed gracefully beside the two teenagers on the beach. 

"Yolei! You're all right!" Hawkmon gleefully cried, flying into the girl's open arms.

"Hawkmon!" Yolei gave a laugh of joy. "I was about to say the same for you!" she exclaimed, hugging her partner digimon close. 

"It's about time you got here," sneered the regally dressed boy, not turning to face the new arrivals. "One minute later, and your little pack of Digidestined would have been down by one more."

T. K.'s eyes narrowed as soon as he got down and had a better look at the indigo-haired teenager. "What do you mean 'one more,' _Ken_?"

The name struck a sharp chord in the Emperor's system. He whirled around to glower at the blond, and that look was all T. K. needed to confirm what he had hoped wasn't true.

"So you did turn back," the Digidestined of Hope hissed.

"Ken, how could you?" asked Cody, his body visibly shaking with anger as joined T.K., who was now only slightly taller than the youngest of the group.

The Emperor didn't have time to give a smug response, for Daemon had begun to grow weary of their little reunion. "Skull Greymon, Mephismon, finish off the humans first!"

Both ultimate-level digimon pushed away their opponents for a split second and aimed their attacks at the group of teenagers.

"Dark Shot!"

"Death Cloud!"

Not wasting a second, the former Digidestined of Kindness ordered, "Ghoulmon, Blue Meramon, intercept those attacks!" 

The controlled digimon did as they were told, leaping in front of the children and firing their own attacks.

"Explosion Eye!"

"Ice Phantom!"

Each opposing attack neutralized the other in a huge explosion, and the four digimon resumed their battle. 

As the Emperor's controlled digimon leapt back into action, the indigo-haired boy yelled at the Digidestined, "Well, what are you waiting for, another death threat from Daemon?"

Much as the other two boys didn't like it, they saw that their only options were either to help him or to die at the hands of the Demon Lord. 

By this time, Pegasusmon and Nefertimon had de-digivolved to Patamon and Gatomon and were ready for action.

"Don't worry, T. K. We'll take care of him later. Just remember the plan," Patamon whispered to his partner quickly. 

Armadillomon tugged at Cody's pant leg, snapping him out of his angry reverie. "Ready whenever you are, Cody."

T. K. and Cody nodded to each other.

"Patamon digivolve to…Angemon!"

"Armadillomon digivolve to…Ankylomon!"

"Ankylomon…Angemon…DNA digivolve to…Shakkoumon!"

"Are you sure you're up for this, Yolei?" asked Kari, concern evident in her voice. After looking at how bad of shape Yolei was in, she was surprised the glasses-wearing girl was still able to stand up on her own.

"Absolutely!" 

Kari cringed at the girl's seemingly enthusiastic reply. It was obvious to her that the bearer of the Digieggs of Love and Sincerity was forcing herself to act cheerful when she really must have felt like a mess.

The Digidestined of Light took her best friend's hand in her own. "Yolei, you can't hide anything from me; I know inside and out, you're hurting deeply." Kari's gentle eyes penetrated into Yolei's shimmering ones. "Look, I'm sorry about everything that's happened to you, but if we want to end this nightmare, you have got to be honest with me. Otherwise, we'll never be able to summon the power needed to defeat the monster who started this all."

Yolei sighed. "I'm sorry, Kari. You're right; this whole ordeal was almost too much for me. But I need to set this pain aside and help fight," she looked longingly at the cloaked back of the boy she loved, "if I ever want to see Ken again."

Kari nodded. "I understand."

"Hawkmon digivolve to…Aquilamon!"

"Aquilamon…Gatomon…DNA digivolve to…Silphymon!"

Silphymon flew onto the battlefield to join Shakkoumon, who had already gone to help the two controlled digimon. 

"'Bout time you girls ended your sentimental rubbish," Ken's dark side gruffly stated without looking at them. "I was about to hurl onto my new black boots."

Without warning, Yolei hobbled up from behind and slapped the Emperor hard across his face. "When this is through, Digimon Emperor, mark my words: Ken and I will send you back to the slime hole you crawled out of."

The indigo-haired boy had the urge to pull out his whip and beat some sense into her, but something deep within him prevented his body from executing that thought. So instead, he regained his composure, looked her straight in the eye, and seethed, "And mark my words, _Inoue_." He waited for her to flinch at the formality, but Yolei wouldn't give him the pleasure, "You will pay dearly for laying a hand on me." 

Ghoulmon's Explosion Eye rang out across the sandy beach as if to emphasize those words and cast an eerie shadow on the teenager's face.

Yolei shivered at the look but pretended that it was because of the frigid night air as she half-heartedly turned to watch the six forest-demolishing digimon. 

And the battle raged on.

***

Gwen: Ack! Yolei abuse again!

Gaia: Hey, at least I only hinted at it this time. 

Gwen: But she still got beat up.

G: (just parachuting in from Neptune) And what's wrong with that?

Gwen: Only everything.

Gaia: Well, how did you expect Daemon and Skull Greymon to react to her bad-mouthing in the previous chapter? Give her a cup of tea?

Gwen: That would have been nice.

G and Gaia: *face-fault*

A/N: Just in case any of you wanted to check up on these digimon, Ghoulmon is the English name for Deathmon, but like I said, I'm mostly going to be using the English or dubbed names and attacks in this story. Also, since May is going to be a busy month for me, as I'm sure it will be for some of you, I don't know how long it's going to take for the next chapter to be out or how long the next chapter will be, so please be patient and again, bear with me here.


	4. Daemon vs the Digidestined, Round One! F...

There's No Rest For the Wicked

Disclaimer: Survey says, "I do not own Digimon!" (Gwen: I don't get it. That Family Feud reference isn't even in proper context.) Just bear with me here. You know how hard it is to think of creative disclaimers after making almost 20 original ones?

A/N: Sorry about the extreme tardiness, not to mention shortness, of this chapter, everyone. The past few weeks have not been fun for me. (Gwen: Hey, why aren't you working on your bio homework? After that C you got on the last exam, how do expect to pull your grade up without getting good marks on the problem sets?) *grumbles* See what I mean? Anyway, sorry if this chapter isn't up to par with the others; I haven't had much of a chance to work on it.

***

Chapter 4 - Daemon vs. the Digidestined, Round One! Fight!

"Ice Phantom!"

An icy blue blast lit up the sky and exploded against Skull Greymon's chest, forcing him to lurch backwards.

"Static Force!"

"Justice Beam!"

Mephismon swatted Silphymon's attack away, but Shakkoumon's managed to get through and hit him in the torso.

Ghoulmon was preparing another Death Arrow when a voice from the nearby beach stopped him.

"Don't waste your energy on those weaklings, Ghoulmon. We have a bigger fish to fry right here!"

The controlled mega digimon seemed to nod in understanding and turned away from the battle…

…to confront Daemon.

The crimson-robed digimon's glowing eyes widened in shock at the sight of the virus digimon headed straight for him.

"Death Arrow!"

Daemon swiftly dodged the attack and took for the sky.

"Evil Inferno!"

A blaze of fire was sent down towards Ghoulmon, but all it accomplished was singing one of the controlled digimon's scarlet wings. Not about to let that one slide, Ghoulmon flew up after his opponent, a lust to kill evident in his single red eye.

And so a clash ensued in the heavens between the two demon lord digimon.

~~~

In the meantime, the four Digidestined silently watched the battles being carried out before them in the half-destroyed forest. It was clear that their digimon had the advantage over Daemon's two ultimates.

"It looks like we might win this thing, no sweat," Yolei chirped. Despite all that she had been through, she still tried to maintain her cheery disposition.

The Digimon Emperor, though, was another case. Even though the fight looked to be in his favor, he still shifted uncomfortably from one foot to another.

"Is there something wrong?" Cody, always the perceptive one, coldly asked the indigo-haired teenager.

Unnoticed, a long, grey tentacle snaked noiselessly from the ocean behind them.

"Humph," the Emperor's eyes never left the battle as he answered, "there certainly is something wrong here. Even after all these years, Daemon hasn't changed, so I don't think he's liable to change his fighting tactics."

The tentacle crept closer and closer, its sights set on one particular human out of the five.

"So, what does that have to do with anything?" T. K. joined in their conversation.

"Fool! Don't you see? Before, he fought us with three ultimates, but I only see two here. Now where could the other one be hiding?"

"AAAHHHH!!!" came a shriek from beside them.

All three boys whirled around at the sound.

"Kari!" T. K. gasped as he saw the Digidestined of Light dangling by one leg in the clutches of a hideous digimon that had just arisen from the depths of the roaring ocean. A squid-like head perched atop a gray, bipedal body with crimson wings.

Daemon managed to blast his opponent away for a moment with an Evil Inferno to greet the newcomer. "Ah, Dragomon, so nice of you to finally join us." Then, turning to the Emperor, he said, "I should thank you, Ichijouji, for sending me to a place where I could find such powerful allies." 

The Emperor clenched his teeth and balled his hands into fists. How dare he mock him like that! "Ghoulmon, shut his trap!" he snapped.

"Explosion Eye!" 

A dark, continuous blast shot out from the controlled digimon's giant eye and headed for Daemon's unprotected back. The Demon Lord turned around in time to catch the attack with both his clawed hands but struggled to prevent it from engulfing him.

Meanwhile, Dragomon had pulled a squirming Kari up to his fishy face to have a good look at her. "Ah, yes, it is you, Queen Kari. Daemon promised that I would be able to find you if I joined him. It's a pleasure to finally meet you."

"Let go of me, you creep!" She yelled defiantly in his face from her upside down position.

"Now, now, is that anyway to greet your future husband? My Scubamon would be so disappointed if I didn't return with the bride they had chosen for me."

Kari gasped. "You're the master of the Dark Ocean?" she asked in disbelief.

Their conversation didn't go any further.

"Justice Beam!" 

While Silphymon continued the fight with Mephismon and Blue Meramon battled Skull Greymon, Shakkoumon had flown back to the teenagers as soon as he'd heard T. K.'s cry.

Dragomon pulled his other appendage out of the ocean, revealing an arm that looked like a huge bundle of gnarled tentacles and which wielded a vicious-looking trident. He quickly drew the weapon in front of him and blocked Shakkoumon's attack.

"Don't worry, Kari! We'll save you," T. K. called, splashing up to them in the shallow waters.

"No, T. K., stay back!" Kari screamed, but it was too late.

"Thousand Waves!" 

A huge tidal wave suddenly rose up and crashed upon the beach, knocking Shakkoumon down. Yolei, Cody, and the Digimon Emperor managed to get out of the way in time, but the Digidestined of Hope was swept up in the ebb of the tide.

"T. K., no!" the three remaining Digidestined yelled in unison.

Shakkoumon instantly got up and started flying after the blonde, but the aquatic digimon wasn't about to give him a chance.

"Forbidden Trident!"

Dragomon launched his deadly trident at the metallic digimon. Shakkoumon didn't have time to dodge the projectile, which hit him square in the chest and sent waves of electricity coursing through his body.

All the while, T. K. had been slipping from the Digidestineds' site.

"T. K.!" Kari struggled even harder to break free of Dragomon's grasp.

"Oh my gosh, he's drowning," cried a near hysterical Yolei, who could only see T. K.'s sputtering head and an arm bobbing on the waves. "Someone do something!"

Unfortunately, there wasn't anything anyone could do at the moment.

~~~

T. K. did his best to haul himself up to the surface of the water. Although he wasn't a champion swimmer, he at least knew how to tread water for a few minutes, even in choppy water, and how to free-style up to ten laps in the school's pool. 

However, those skills wouldn't be good enough to save him now. 

As T. K. struggled to stay afloat long enough for him to start swimming, he felt something heavy pulling him down. He couldn't figure it out what it was, though. It wasn't as if there were any other creatures in the water, besides the overgrown calamari a fifty meters away from him, and he knew that there weren't any undertows or long strands of seaweed this close to shore. He should have been able to stay on the surface easily, just like in gym class. 

It was just then he realized what was tugging on him--the now-soaked coat his mom had given him, which he still wore and which was doing a good job of weighing him down. T. K. was about to tear it off and try to make a break for shore when a giant wave swept over him before he could do anything else.

This sent him tumbling over and over under the stormy water. After much effort, T. K. finally managed to orient himself in the dark depths, but time was running out. He hadn't taken much of a breath of water before he went down, and his air supply was about to be depleted. 

Squirming out of the encumbering coat, T. K. quickly swam up and made a desperate grab for the surface of the water.

But he only managed to pull a single arm out of the ravenous sea before his watery surroundings faded into blackness.

~~~

"Humph, looks like Takaishi's a goner all right. And I thought he would have died more nobly than this," the Emperor casually remarked.

In the back of her mind, Yolei made a mental note to punch his lights out later, since now was definitely not the time. 

"Shakkoumon, you've got to do something!" the brown-haired thirteen-year-old cried, running up beside the metallic digimon.

"I'm trying, Cody," said Shakkoumon, still trying to shake off that last attack.

Dragomon let out an evil cackle. "I don't think so. Nothing's going to stand in the way of me claiming my bride. Thousand Waves!"

Once again, Shakkoumon was downed by the attack.

"Mwahahaha! Say good-bye to one of your friends, my queen," Dragomon gloated, leering at his captive.

Kari squeezed her eyes shut, as if willing the monster away, but it was doing her no good. She felt Dragomon pulling her closer and closer to his hideous face, his cold, fishy breath sending involuntary shivers all over her body. Kari felt like breaking down into tears; she was so helpless in this state. Couldn't someone, _anyone_, save them? 

"HEY, fish-bait! You get your slimy paws off my girl!" came a new voice from above.

"What?!" No sooner had the aquatic digimon looked up when a blue foot made contact with his face. Unconsciously, Dragomon let the girl in his grasp fall, sending Kari screaming down towards the black waves. 

However, before the Digidestined of Light could hit the waves below, she was caught in the strong arms of a certain goggle-wearing boy.

"Davis!" 

"The one and only," he stated, giving her a lopsided grin. The bearer of the Digieggs of Courage and Friendship rode on one the shoulder of ExVeemon while on the other clung a worried Wormmon.

Out of pure relief, she wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly. 

His eyes nearly bugging out of their sockets, Davis could feel a hot blush forming on his face and wondered if steam were visibly coming out of his ears, yet at the same time he felt like the happiest guy alive.

"Why you little--!" Dragomon roared, but before he could retaliate, Shakkoumon launched an attack.

"Kachina Bomb!"

A blast of fire stunned Dragomon long enough for ExVeemon to fly out of the virus digimon's reach.

"Davis, wait." Kari pulled out of her hug much too soon for the ecstatic teenager, but he still reluctantly let her down to sit beside him on ExVeemon's shoulder. "We can't go yet; we've got to save T. K.!" 

"What?" Confusion had replaced the boy's initial disappointment.

At that, she shakily pointed to the murky waters where a hand was slowly disappearing.

Davis' eyes widened in shock once he had made out what she was pointing at. "Holy…!" Sure he still saw T. K. as a rival for Kari's heart, but nevertheless, the guy was one of his best friends. "ExVeemon, pick me up in a few seconds," he quickly blurted out before yanking down his goggles and diving headlong into the choppy ocean.

There was nothing any of them could do to stop him.

"Davis, nooooo--!" was the last thing he heard from a distraught Kari before hitting the churning waters. 

***

Gwen: Finally, a short chapter!

Gaia: I know you're happy about it, but I don't think the readers are.

G: What readers?

Gaia: *smacks G upside the head* Very funny. And if you're going to stay in suspension, at least get out of the way so that I can hurry up with the next chapter before the readers burn us at the stake.

Gwen: For the shortness of the chapter?

Gaia: That, T. K. drowning, Davis going on a suicide dive, and Ken not playing a major part.

Gwen: Ah.

A/N: Dragomon = English name of Dagomon. Also, since I don't remember "His Master's Voice" too well, I'm basing this off a summary I found of the Japanese version in which the "Scubamon" wanted Kari to be Dragomon/Dagomon's bride. Don't worry, Nic, the information you provided me about the episode will be used for a much later part of the story.

BTW, does anyone know if Ken's children had official names? If not, any suggestions? This is for a couple of stories I have planned, and has nothing to do with this one. Thanks for the help in advance.


	5. Daemon vs the Digidestined, Round Two! F...

There's No Rest for the Wicked

Disclaimer: anoebnaobnaoebnaobnoabneaponaswvwes (G: WTF? /Gwen: Gaia's brain turned to mush after all her finals. /G: She had a brain? Oh, well. She could have at least _tried_ to make an understandable disclaimer. /Gwen: She did. This was her most intelligible one. /G: Hoo, boy.)

Muse's (Gwen's) Note: Gaia's resting up a bit right now, but if she were here, I'm sure she would thank all of you (goldenstar555, Sylvyr Elf, Settiai, and Yuki Chan) who were kind enough to take the time to review her last short chapter. (Believe me, this chapter should make up for it.) Also, a big thank you goes out to everyone who contributed names for Ken's kids. It seems Gaia's going to stick with Akane and Sammy for his two oldest kids, since she remembers hearing them, too, I think from an unofficial list of voice actors. As for the third one, Gaia's still going to think about it a little more, but Settiai, she seems to be really leaning towards using Koro for his name, if that's all right with you.

***

Chapter 5 – Daemon vs. the Digidestined, Round Two! Fight!

The ground shook as the controlled Blue Meramon locked arms with Daemon's Skull Greymon in a test of strength. No matter how hard one pushed against the other, neither of them could budge his opponent.

"Enough fooling around! Blue Meramon, just finish him off already!" a dark-haired boy impatiently called from nearby.

The icy digimon blinked his red eyes in affirmation and yelled, "Cold Flame!" 

Instantly, an icy blast engulfed the Skull Greymon in his clutches, freezing every bone in his body. Then the Blue Meramon stepped back and with a powerful uppercut, pulverized the skeleton digimon into nothing but shards of data.

No one noticed the Emperor's cheap shot, nor would they have had time to care, for there were more urgent matters at hand.

~~~

The frigid waters of the Digital World's ocean hit Davis like a hailstorm. After sitting and shivering for a few seconds, the brunette spied the reason why he had suddenly decided to go skin diving at this time of night.

Eyes shut and staying deathly still, the Digidestined of Hope was sinking quickly. Davis didn't have much time.

The bearer of the Digieggs of Courage and Friendship dove down after the blond, all the while releasing his air bit by bit in the form of bubbles.

Down, down, down both boys went.

Not being used to this sort of thing, the goggle-wearing boy used up his air supply fast. Davis could feel the blood pounding in his head, and his lungs begged him to go up for a fresh breath of air, but he was determined not to go back without T. K.

However, no matter how hard he swam, he wasn't getting any closer. With T. K. slipping farther and farther away, and Davis' air supply slowly running out, the situation was looking hopeless.

'Man, Kari's never going to forgive me if I let this guy drown.' No sooner had the forlorn thought crossed his mind when Davis shook his head violently and gritted his teeth in determination. 'No, I can't think like that. Come on, Davis, you're not as dumb as everyone thinks you are. What would make me go faster if I were on dry land and not soaked cold to the bone in this place?' 

It then occurred to him that his water-saturated clothes could have been holding him back all this time by catching onto the water as it rushed past him, kind of like how the wind slows him down when he runs headlong into it with his jacket open. So, quickly ripping off his blazer and shirt, he redoubled his efforts with a renewed resolve.

It worked! 

'Oh yeah, who's da man?' he thought excitedly to himself. Despite the chill that was threatening to freeze up his joints, he managed to swim down fast enough to grab one of T. K.'s flailing wrists.

"Gotcha!" he exclaimed, releasing the last of the air he was holding in. 

But this was no time for celebrating. With the last of his strength, Davis dragged his fellow Digidestined up with him to the choppy surface.

~~~

"Look, over there!" Kari pointed to a spot in the ocean about fifty meters away from them where Davis' gasping head had shot up from the water with T. K.'s unconscious one following not long after.

Immediately, ExVeemon shot over to them so fast that the girl and the insect digimon on his shoulders would have fallen off had they not held on to him so tightly. The turquoise digimon was never so relieved in his life. 

"Davis, are you all right?" Kari and ExVeemon simultaneously asked once they had stopped and hovered down to the brown-haired teenager.

Davis coughed out some salt water and shivered a bit before answering, "Nothing that a warm fire and a hot cup of cocoa couldn't cure, but I can't say the same for T. K. over here."

All three new arrivals started at Davis calling T. K. by his correct name.

"Well, are you just going to sit around up there? T. K. needs help, pronto!" the goggle-wearing boy said, concern evident in his voice.

Grinning a toothy smile, ExVeemon quickly scooped up the boys and flew them to shore.

~~~ 

In the meantime, Shakkoumon was busy keeping Dragomon at bay.

"Thousand Waves!"

This time Shakkoumon managed to absorb the attack and soon after released a burst of water at the virus digimon. Dragomon staggered back a little from the impact of the counterattack.

"Don't let up Shakkoumon!" Cody coached from the beach. Inside, the boy sensed T. K.'s heart faintly beating, so he knew his DNA-digivolving partner was alive, but if he wanted him to stay that way, Cody had to make sure Dragomon didn't get anywhere near the Digidestined of Hope.

"Kachina Bomb!" The fiery blast hit the aquatic digimon dead on.

Slightly scorched but still alive, Dragomon let out an enraged growl and mysteriously called back his trident, which he launched not long after it had returned to his slimy grasp.

"Forbidden Trident!"

Shakkoumon tried to dodge the weapon, but it lodged itself into his arm and proceeded to electrocute him.

Cody's eyes and mouth went wide. "No! Shakkoumon!" 

A derisive laugh came from behind him, causing the boy to spin around with an irate expression on his face. "What's so funny, _Ken_?"

The Emperor decided it was best to brush off that last part--for now. "Hmph, your digimon seems to be holding up _awfully_ well," he sarcastically commented. The regally dressed boy let out another snicker before gloating, "Unlike my digimon, who's already defeated one of Daemon's goons."

Cody looked as if he were about to blow a gasket. "Well, if he's so strong, why doesn't he just come over and help out here?" he snapped.

"Sorry, but he's off helping that sorry excuse for a digimon over there," he said coolly, gesturing to Silphymon, who had just fired an Astral Laser at Mephismon.

Yolei, who was regaining her strength by resting on a nearby rock, heard that remark and decided that later wasn't going to come soon enough. Keeping as calm a demeanor about her as possible, she got to her feet, strolled over to the Emperor, balled her right hand into a fist, and--.

"Is that Takaishi I see?" the teenage tyrant queried without looking at the girl.

Yolei turned her head in the direction he was looking and saw that indeed T. K. was being brought back by ExVeemon not far from them. However, she didn't have too much time to look because the Emperor had suddenly caught her throat in a vice-like grip.

"You let her go right now!" Cody screamed and rushed at him.

The Emperor swatted away the incensed boy with his other arm and tightened his grip on Yolei as he brought his face in close to hers. "Try that again, and you'll get far worse than this," he seethed before throwing her into the arms of Cody, who had just gotten up, ready to pounce on the Emperor again. "Besides, don't you have more important things to attend to?"

Cody helped steady a coughing Yolei on her feet and whispered, "Let's just forget about this traitor, Yolei. The others might need our help."

"Fine," she mumbled back halfheartedly, but then more loudly she said, "Just remind me to take out that loser when we're through here." She jerked a thumb toward the Emperor.

"Oooo, I'm shaking in my black, polished boots," the indigo-haired boy sardonically shot back.

As the two dashed over to meet their friends, the Emperor turned his attention to the sky, where something more important was taking place. "Once you're out of the way, Daemon," he hissed, "The Digital World will be mine for the taking."

~~~

"Explosion Eye!"

Daemon narrowly avoided another dark burst of energy from the other mega digimon. He couldn't believe how much trouble he was having. Of course, Ghoulmon was just like him, a virus, demon lord digimon, but he still shouldn't have been much of a match. After all, Daemon hadn't had his ability to think and adapt according to the situation taken away from him like that controlled monstrosity.

The crimson-robed digimon aimed yet another Evil Inferno at his enemy's Dark Band, but once again, the pesky floating eyeball managed to dodge the attack.

It was clear that both digimon were in a stalemate.

"Ghoulmon, enough with the direct attacks! Initiate Battle Tactic Gamma!" called the young emperor on the beach. 

An idea suddenly struck Daemon. Pointing a hand in Ichijouji's direction, he growled and shot out a magenta blast at the boy.

Ghoulmon was quick to protect his master and blocked the beam without being fazed in the least. 

Not long after that, Daemon fired an Evil Inferno straight at the digimon on the defense. However, the Emperor knew better to let him and his controlled digimon stick around.

Mentally, he ordered Ghoulmon to pick him up and get him out of there fast. The digimon complied, and Daemon's attack only succeeded in scorching the ground where the teenage emperor once stood.

After putting the ticked off Digimon Emperor down somewhere safe, Ghoulmon flew back up to execute "Battle Tactic Gamma."

The black digimon managed to fly up behind Daemon and kicked him hard in the back, apparently not hard enough to do any damage but just enough to get the Demon Lord roused.

As expected, Daemon wasn't going to let that move go unpunished.

"Chaos Flare!" the horned digimon bellowed.

However, in the meantime, Ghoulmon had managed to hover just behind Dragomon, so that right before the deadly could attack hit him, he dropped out of the way and let the blaze of fire continue on its course--straight to Daemon's minion.

Backing off as soon as he had seen the blazing blast coming, Shakkoumon floated out of range and shielded his eyes as the weakened Undersea Master was incinerated into ashes of data.

Taking advantage of Daemon's momentary shock, the Emperor made Ghoulmon fire an Explosion Eye right into Daemon's back.

The blast connected, and the Demon Lord roared in pain. Nevertheless, other than a large burn mark on his back, he was still perfectly intact—and now more furious than ever.

On the sidelines, the Emperor snapped his fingers in annoyance. "Darnnit! I thought that would have done more damage. Oh well, let's go for Battle Tactic Epsilon next, Ghoulmon."

The banded digimon nodded in compliance. 

This was going to be one long battle indeed, Daemon concluded. Even though Ghoulmon was a mindless puppet, he had the power of the Dark Spore on his side, and that was making all the difference.

~~~

T. K. slowly opened hazy eyes, which were greeted with the sight of a beautiful brunette girl with shining auburn eyes.

"An angel?" he murmured. "Am I in Heaven?"

The girl giggled. "Oh, T. K., that's so sweet of you to say."

"Wha?" He recognized that voice. The blonde's eyes flew fully open, and he sat bolt upright, coughing up salt water to his surprise. "K-kari?" he sputtered.

The relieved girl next to him wrapped her arms around him and hugged him tightly. "I'm so glad you're all right."

Now that he could see clearly, T. K. took the time to take in his surroundings. They were all still on the chilly beach: Cody was knelt down on one side of him with Wormmon, Yolei was behind Kari on his other side and looking as if she were about to hug him next—and a very red and wet Davis was standing in front of him half-naked and fuming.

"Um…did I miss something here?" T. K. asked, confused.

Yolei could barely contain her laughter. "Oh nothing much—ExVeemon rescued Kari, Davis saved you from a watery grave, and Kari just gave you mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, that's all."

"She what?!" T. K.'s blue eyes nearly bugged out of his sockets. 

The two girls burst out laughing at the look on his face. Even Cody couldn't help but crack a slight smile.

"Yeah, well, I still don't see why _Kari_ had to be the one to wake him up like that!" Davis erupted, steam coming out of his ears. 

In between fits of laughter, Yolei teased, "Is that jealousy I hear, Davis? Maybe you wanted to be the one who gave T. K. CPR?"

This caused the two fifteen-year-old boys to turn a bright shade of red—in Davis' case, an even brighter shade than he already wore, which made Yolei crack up even harder.

"Grrr…fine! Laugh all you want! I'll bet Ken will appreciate the heroic stunt I pulled," Davis growled as he ran towards his best friend, who he spotted in the distance. "Hey, Ken!"

While Davis sprinted off, everyone there stiffened and grew silent immediately.

Yolei turned to the small green digimon across from her and asked, "Wormmon, he doesn't know?"

Wormmon shook his head. "I tried to tell him on the way here, but he wouldn't listen."

"Oh, no, Davis, wait!" T. K. was on his feet and running after the goggle-head in no time. The rest followed with Wormmon riding in Yolei's arms.

~~~

"Static Force!"

"Ice Phantom!"

Agile as a deer, Mephismon ducked and jumped to avoid each attack.

Silphymon floated down next to Blue Meramon in order to regroup and plan their next attack. 'I can't believe we're siding with one of the Emperor's slaves,' the Gatomon half of Silphymon thought. 'What if he suddenly decides to turn on us?'

'We can't worry about that now. It's not as if we have a choice of allies at the moment,' Aquilamon thought back.

"Need a hand?" called a metallic voice from behind.

"Or how about a foot?" asked another gravelly one.

Silphymon turned to see Shakkoumon and ExVeemon coming to join them.

'You were saying?' Gatomon thought. 'We have more than enough fire power now.'

"Humph, more of you to play with, eh? So you think you have the advantage?" questioned Mephismon coolly. "In that case, allow me to make this game a little more interesting."

Before any of them could react, the Fallen Angel digimon had let loose a thin beam of dark energy in Blue Meramon's direction, aimed specifically the Dark Band on the fiery digimon's arm with pinpoint accuracy.

Out of instinct, all the other digimon jumped back far away from the incoming attack. However, Blue Meramon wasn't as lucky. 

At first, Blue Meramon let out a yelp of pain as the attack hit its intended target, but once the beam had disintegrated the band, Mephismon stopped. The tall, blue digimon then calmed down, his red eyes returning to their normal emptiness.

"Wha-what happened?" the freed digimon stammered.

Mephismon leapt up and gently touched down beside the flame digimon. "My friend, you were being controlled by the Digimon Emperor."

"The Digimon Emperor?! But he's been gone for years!" Blue Meramon exclaimed incredulously, turning to look at the digimon who must have been the one that freed him.

"Yes, but he's returned, and those three over there," he declared, pointing in Silphymon, Shakkoumon, and ExVeemon's direction, "are working for him. Team up with me so that we can destroy them and rid the Digital World of the Emperor once and for all!" 

"Hey, you got it! It's the least I can do after you set me free."

"Uh, oh. This doesn't sound good," Silphymon muttered loud enough for Shakkoumon and ExVeemon to hear.

"No kidding," said ExVeemon. "The Emperor's back? That definitely isn't good. Hey, who are the jerks that guy said were working for the Emperor? I'd like to go kick their butts!"

The two DNA-digivolved digimon sweatdropped.

"He was talking about us, doofus," Silphymon answered. By the annoyance in the humanoid digimon's voice, ExVeemon guessed that was the Gatomon half piping up.

"What?! We're working for the Emperor! No way!"

"We'll fill you in later," Shakkoumon quickly said, for Mephismon and Blue Meramon were starting to take the offensive. "Just help us out with these guys first."

"Shakkoumon," ordered Silphymon, "you're helping me with Mephismon. ExVeemon, keep Blue Meramon busy in the meantime."

"Who, me?" ExVeemon looked at the beast man digimon incredulously.

"What? You don't think you can hold off a Blue Meramon for a few minutes?" Silphymon snapped.

"Of course I can!...I think. But--"

"Then it's settled! Shakkoumon, let's go. He's getting away." With that, the two DNA-digivolved digimon took off after Mephismon.

After they had left, ExVeemon nervously turned to face the flame digimon on the ground below him. "Okay, ExVeemon, get a grip on yourself," he said quietly to himself. "Just because he's an ultimate doesn't mean you can't take him. You can do this by yourself..."

"Cold Flame!" An icy blast shot straight towards him.

"DAVIS!!!"

~~~

The Emperor knit his brow in concentration. Battle Tactic Epsilon had been ineffective as well, and now that Blue Meramon was no longer under his control, he realized that this fight would require his full attention if the battle were going to swing in his favor.

"Yo, Ken!" he heard an approaching voice yell. He didn't have to avert his gaze to know who the troublesome pest was.

The dark-haired boy didn't bother to turn his head as he hissed to the boy who stopped beside him, "You're late."

"Sorry, dude, the train station was packed, and how was I supposed to know you went on ahead of me? Whoa," Davis finally noticed the outfit his friend wore, "what's with the get-up?" He rested a hand on one of the other boy's shoulder pads.

Big mistake.

With cat-like reflexes, the regally dressed boy tossed Davis over his shoulder in a perfect judo throw, and while the goggle-head was down, he landed a solid punch into the boy's bare stomach. 

"Don't you dare touch me," the Emperor muttered darkly. He was about to turn back to the battle up above when Davis jerked him down to one knee by his cape.

"What the heck is wrong with you, Ken?!" the brown-haired boy yelled at the Emperor after getting the wind back into him.

In response, the now furious Digimon Emperor yanked him up by his chocolate-brown hair so that the teenage boy's face was mere centimeters from his own. He wasn't in the mood to play games at the moment. "Look into my eyes, Goggle Brain," he mouthed each word slowly, as if lecturing a four-year-old. "Ken's! Not! Home!"

With that, the Emperor shoved Davis back down and stood up to resume monitoring the fight between Daemon and Ghoulmon.

"Davis, are you all right?" Kari asked, running up beside him. 

Cody and T. K. helped him to his feet. Soon, though, their helping hands had to be turned into restraining arms.

"All right, buddy, who are you, and what the freak have you done to Ken?" Davis was livid and ready to beat the snot out of the motionless teenager before him. 

"Davis, Ken's dark side has taken over."

"He's become the Digimon Emperor again," Yolei and then Wormmon explained, coming up beside him as well.

"What…?" Davis stopped struggling, the news hitting him like an anvil. Ken...the Digimon Emperor? For some reason, the thought didn't want to register in his head. Sure, Ken had been that no-good tyrant once, but that was all in the past. Ken had defeated his inner demons back when they'd opened the Dark Gate, hadn't he? "No…Ken wouldn't…he couldn't have…"

"I'm afraid so, Davis," T. K. said gravely, slowly letting him go.

The goggle-wearing teenager clenched his fists at his side and let out a low growl. 'No! This just isn't possible!' he stubbornly thought. 'Th-this is probably a trick he decided to pull on Daemon. Yeah…that's gotta be it…and it's fooled everyone but me. Ken, you sly dog, you're always thinking up these kind of crazy things…heh…heh…'

But as Davis looked once again upon his best human friend's face, he knew instantly that he was just kidding himself.

'Why, Ken? Why wouldn't you come to us first? We could have come up with some other way. Why'd you have to go and do such a stupid thing?!' Davis thought. His frustration built up inside of him, like water filling up a dam about to burst, until all he could finally think to yell aloud was, "Why didn't anybody tell me sooner?!" Davis turned his head and glared at all of them, Wormmon in particular.

The insect digimon sweatdropped. "You wouldn't listen?"

"Never mind. We can point fingers later," Yolei interrupted before Davis could say anything more. "The most important thing right now is beating Daemon. Ken can come later."

This last statement shocked everyone present. Even though it was obvious to everyone that defeating the Demon Lord had priority in this situation, they were surprised to hear Yolei declare that something was more important than Ken.

**'You hear that Mr. Goody-goody?'** Ken's dark side thought. **'I wouldn't be surprised if she hated you after this is through. After all, you were weak and foolish enough to give in to me.'**

Any mental strength Ken had left to fight was quickly being sapped by the dark emotions he felt as he listened to the Emperor, who was only growing stronger.

"All right, Capeboy!" Davis grumbled, slowly coming up beside him. "I'll let you work with us for now, but the minute this is over--"

"—'I'm gonna to put you away once and for all,'" the Emperor finished with Davis, all the while mimicking his voice. "Take a number; death threats seem to be attracted to me like moths to a flame today." 

Davis looked like he was going to pop a vein, but he took a minute to calm himself down. Ken wouldn't appreciate a beaten up body when they got him back to his senses. "That's not the only thing I came here to say."

"Then spill it. I'm busy here." The Emperor's eyes darted back and forth as he tried to follow the battle against Daemon.

"If you're gonna work with us, then let's hurry up and get Imperialdramon here."

The Emperor snorted. "Don't be a such a fool. That's impossible." His eyes never left the fight up above.

"And just why is that?!" The teenage tyrant's composed attitude was getting on his nerves. "Look, just because we haven't done it in years doesn't mean it's impossible."

"Don't you get it? As long as Kenny boy's not in control, my kindness is gone, and without that, the worm can't digivolve into anything higher than his current pitiful level--much less DNA-digivolve with your dim-witted partner."

"Then bring him back!" Davis' hands were ready to grab the indigo-haired boy's throat and throttle him, but soon enough, T.K. and Cody's restraining arms were once again upon him.

"I don't think so," the Emperor said snidely, a tiny smirk creeping across his face. "I don't think you'd want to find out what it's like to fight against two mega virus digimon. You see, if Ken comes back, Ghoulmon will no longer be under my control, and well, let's just say he wasn't all that easy to catch in the first place."

Davis hated when Ken was right, Emperor or no. He calmed down and waved T.K. and Cody off, showing the two teenagers that he'd be fine. "Okay, genius, then how do you expect to beat Daemon without Imperialdramon on our side?"

His coy smirk widened. "That's for me to know and you to wait and find out."

***

G: Cliffhanger!   
Gwen: I'm surprised that you're so cheerful. This has to be the longest chapter yet.   
G: Yeah, but Gaia did most of the work this time, and besides, I can't wait to see the readers squirm for more in the reviews. :)   
Gwen: You're evil.   
G: Thank you.   
Gaia: Glad to see you in such a good mood, G, 'cuz you're doing the next chapter, and with things heating up like this, you can bet it'll be a doozy.   
G: *jaw drops* Bu-but you said you'd never trust me to write again after that blonde/brunette mix up with Mrs. Takaishi.   
Gaia: I lied.   
G: You're evil.   
Gaia: Thank you. 


	6. Daemon vs the Digidestined, Round Three!...

There's No Rest for the Wicked

Disclaimer: If you think I own Digimon, take it up with my lawyers.  (G: What lawyers?)  *puts a finger over her lips* Shhh!  That's the point.

Gaia: ^_^ Hee, hee, guess what day it is.

G: Um, the day you finally came out with this chapter?

Gaia: *smacks muse with a mallet* No, it's a special day.

Gwen: Um, is it your birthday?

Gaia: *smacks muse twice with a mallet* No!  You know very well that that isn't until the first Monday of August this year.  Guess again.

G: Um….

Gwen:….

Gaia: *jaw drops* You guys forgot?

G: No, no, of course not… but could you remind us?

Gaia: *face-faults* It's my one year anniversary on FFN!

G: Oh, that's all it was?  I thought it was something important.

Gaia: (fuming) And as for your anniversary gift…*picks up G by the collar of her shirt and throws her out the window* 

G: AAAaaaahhhhh….! *sound of muse hitting a garbage can is heard*

Gaia: *dusts off her hands* I missed doing that.

Gwen: (nervously) So, uh, Gaia, is this all you're doing for your anniversary, one more chapter to your sequel?

Gaia: *smiles mischievously* Well, we'll see, now won't we?

**7/26/02 update** – Yes, you're right about the digivolving thing in this chapter, "The Price Is Right" Fan.  Even though I usually go by the dub, that was actually a last minute change because one of my muses had shown me a Japanese clip she'd just d/led from the net and then decided to change it. (G: Hey, don't pin this one on me.) G, I didn't say it was you. (G: Oh, oops. *blushes*) But it's been taken care of.  Since it was a rush job by _one of my muses_ anyway, (G: *whistles innocently*) I'd planned on going back and fixing this chapter up.  So, sorry about that, and I'm glad someone is keeping track of this stuff besides, _supposedly_, my muses.

***

Chapter 6 - Daemon vs. the Digidestined, Round Three! Fight!

"Kachina Bomb!"

Mephismon jumped high into the air, easily clearing the approaching ball of fire.

"Static Force!"

The goat-like digimon then touched down and dodged the pink blast.

"This doesn't seem to be working," Shakkoumon flatly stated.

"You think?" Silphymon sarcastically commented, coming over to hover beside him.  "So, any bright ideas?"

Mephismon laughed out loud.  "Oh, just give up already!  Once my master is through over there, you're next.  It'd be wiser for you to surrender now and join the winning side while you still can."

Silphymon growled lowly.  "Not on your life!"  The beast man digimon was about to leap back into action when a metallic hand halted the headstrong attack.

"Hold it, Silphymon.  This looks like a job for teamwork, not to mention a bit of strategy," Shakkoumon said.   

Calming down somewhat, Silphymon queried, "Like I said before, any bright ideas?"

"Have you been watching his movements?"

Silphymon nodded, both in affirmation and understanding.  "I getcha.  I'll take the high ground, and you take the low ground?"

"Right."

"I'll be waiting."  At that, Silphymon took for the sky, disappearing into a patch of dark clouds overhead.

"Where did your cowardly companion fly off to?"  Mephismon snidely asked.  "Gone to get help?  Or did you think you could take me on by yourself?"

"You said it, not me," Shakkoumon taunted.

"Fool!  Well, it looks like I might as well take advantage of the situation then."  Mephismon cupped his hands together, gathering dark energy for his most powerful attack. "Black--."

However, Shakkoumon wasn't just going to sit around and wait to be blown to digital shrapnel.  "Kachina Bomb!" he called out loudly, letting loose another ball of fire.

His attack interrupted, Mephismon reflexively jumped up into the air--

--only to be hit by a pink blast of energy.

The fallen angel digimon cried out more in surprise than pain.  As he tumbled over and over towards the remains of the forest below, out of the corner of his eye, he spotted Silphymon bursting through the clouds, another blast being prepared by the data type digimon.

Mephismon didn't want to stick around for that, though.

Once he touched ground, the virus digimon leapt to the side in anticipation of his enemy's second attack.

But all he succeeded in doing was running into Shakkoumon's strategically fired Justice Beam.

Mephismon let out an enraged howl and fell to the ground, taking down a few more trees with him.  How dare they trick him like that!  His back smoldering from the hits he'd just received, Mephismon tried to stand up and fight back, but the battle had taken its toll on him; he found that his body was in too much pain to stand.  "This...can't...be!"

"Quickly, Silphymon, before he has a chance to recover.  Kachina Bomb!"

"Astral Laser!"

"NOOOO!!!"  Mephismon wailed as he was blasted into bits of data.

Both Silphymon and Shakkoumon breathed a sigh of relief as they watched the last of the fallen angel digimon disintegrate.

"Whew, I thought that would take forever.  Good thinking, Shakkoumon," Silphymon complimented.

"It was nothing, but right now, don't we have something else to take care of?"

Realization hit the other DNA-digivolved digimon like a Zudomon's hammer.  "Oh no, I almost forgot about ExVeemon!  We left him high and dry back there!" Silphymon exclaimed.  "We've got to hurry back to him.  He could be injured or worse by now!"

"You don't have to tell me twice," Shakkoumon agreed. 

The two ultimate-level digimon immediately headed back to where they left their friend, but as soon as they got there, they froze in shock at the sight that greeted them.

"So, who do you think's going to win the soccer championship this year?"  ExVeemon was leaning casually against one of the few standing trees in the demolished forest.

"Tamachi High, of course," chirped the Blue Meramon leaning against a tree right across from him.

"No way!  Odaiba can kick their butts any day of the week," the turquoise, dragon-like digimon hotly contested.

Silphymon and Shakkoumon face-vaulted.

Apparently not aware of either of them, ExVeemon continued, "Besides, Davis is going to be co-captain of the team this year, so they're going to be unbeatable."

Blue Meramon snorted, "Only if Tamachi forfeits.  Rei's going to be the captain of the Tamachi team, and he's going to wipe the floor with your bushy-haired partner."

"Oh yeah?" Growling, ExVeemon stood up and shoved his face up to Blue Meramon's.

"Yeah!"  Blue Meramon shoved his face mere millimeters from ExVeemon's and started growling, too.

"Hey, just what is going on here?"  Silphymon demanded like a schoolteacher to two bickering children.  After recovering from their shock, Shakkoumon and Silphymon had curiously flown up beside the two unnoticed.

"Wha--?"  ExVeemon gave a start, breaking off his staring contest with Blue Meramon.  "Oh hi, you guys.  When did you get here?  Done already?"  

Silphymon appeared ready to smack the champion-level digimon for his laid-back attitude, but Shakkoumon interrupted their conversation before anything could happen.

"ExVeemon, do you know this digimon?"  Shakkoumon asked eyeing the Blue Meramon warily.

"Huh?  Of course.  This is Rei's partner digimon.  You remember: Davis and I used to play soccer with him and Rei in the park a few years back.  Of course back then, he was a Candlemon, and I played as Veemon--"

"This is Rei's Candlemon?!" Silphymon asked incredulously.

"Yep, in the flesh...er, flames," Blue Meramon confirmed.

"Wow, it's been awhile all right."  Shakkoumon extended a friendly claw towards Blue Meramon.  "I haven't seen you since Rei's family moved to Tamachi two years ago so that he could go to Tamachi High School.  How's Rei doing, by the way?"

Giving Shakkoumon's proffered arm a quick shake, Blue Meramon cheerfully answered, "He's doing great.  He even has a girlfriend now, which is kinda the reason why I got mixed up in all this in the first place."

"Really, how so?"

"Well, ya see," Blue Meramon explained, "Rei kinda wanted to spend some quality time with his girlfriend back home--wink, wink--so he told me to stay in the Digital World for a few hours.  Of course, being the nice 'mon I am, I agreed, but no sooner had I popped out of the T. V. when I felt something hard hit my arm.  The next thing I knew, I was here with that other freaky digimon telling me you guys worked for the Digimon Emperor."  He gave a short laugh.  "I should have known he was lying the minute he said the Digimon Emperor was back.  He couldn't possibly..." Blue Meramon trailed off upon seeing the gloomy looks on Shakkoumon's and Silphymon's faces.  "He was lying, right?  I mean, the Emperor's gone for good, so you guys can't really be working for him."

Shakkoumon put a metal claw on the flame digimon's shoulder.  "It's a long story.  Remind us to tell you later, but right now, you've gotta get out of here.  It's too dangerous."

"Oh, come on," Blue Meramon said cockily.  "From the looks of things here, you guys are gonna need my help."

"Don't worry about us.  We'll handle Daemon ourselves," Shakkoumon assured.

"Besides, you must be low on energy from battling us," Silphymon added.

Blue Meramon snorted.  "Yeah, but I got a long chance to rest after I recognized who ExVeemon was."  He leaned back on a tree again, putting both hands behind his head in a relaxed posture.

"That reminds me, just how did you manage to recognize him?"  Shakkoumon queried.

The flaming blue digimon gave a short laugh. "Hah, are you kidding me?  Only the Veemon I know would cry out for Davis like a baby in the middle of a fight."

"Hey, I resent that," ExVeemon snapped, but no one paid any attention to him.

"Still, I think you should leave.  Rei would never forgive us if you got deleted," Silphymon said.

"But I'm telling you, I'll be fine.  See? I still have some fight left in me."  Blue Meramon jumped up and performed a few fake jabs before striking a victory pose.  

No sooner had he done that, though, when a white glow surrounded him, and he began to shrink.

"What in the world?"  Silphymon as well as Shakkoumon and ExVeemon were puzzled to say the least.

Seconds later, in Blue Meramon's place was a tiny digimon that resembled a lit candle with faces on both the candle stem and the ball of fire burning on the wick.

"Oops, maybe I spoke too soon," the face on Candlemon's candle stem squeaked out.

"Then it's settled: you're going back home," a half-relieved Silphymon ordered.

"Oh, fine, and just when I was having fun with my new powers," Candlemon moped.

"New powers?"  ExVeemon questioned.

"Yeah, when I entered the Digital World, I was like this, but after I came to my senses, I found myself as an ultimate, and it felt great!"

'Ken must have made him digivolve with those Dark Bands of his,' the Aquilamon half of Silphymon thought.

'That's no big surprise; he's done it to Agumon before,' the Gatomon half answered.

'So why do I sense that you're still puzzled by something?'

Gatomon gave a mental sigh.  'Well…the old Ken used to always digivolve digimon along their viral line, but this time he digivolved Candlemon to Blue Meramon, a data form, instead of Death Meramon, his virus form.'

'Hmmm, that's strange all right,' the Aquilamon side conceded, 'but we can't ponder this now.  We have to help the others out.'

'Right, this can wait.'

Aloud, Silphymon called, "Come on guys, we've got a pointy-headed creep to deal with.  Candlemon, you're going home, and that's final."

"Aw, nuts," the rookie-level digimon whined.  "I always get to miss out on the fun."

"Now!"  Silphymon scolded.    

"Fine, fine.  I'm going, see?"  With that, Candlemon hopped away in the direction of the nearest Digiport.

"He always did want to be where the action was," Shakkoumon commented once the little digimon was out of earshot.

"Speaking of where the action is," ExVeemon started, "isn't that where we're supposed to be right now?"

"You're right," Silphymon agreed.  "Let's go finish what we came here to do!"

And so the three digimon flew back, unaware that Fate had more in store for them than meets the eye.

~~~

"Here they come!" Cody called from his lookout position atop a boulder on the edge of the beach.

"Okay, Emperor, they're returning; time to spill the beans.  What's this plan of yours?"  Yolei snapped at the teenage boy who still hadn't moved from his previous position of command.

His signature smirk still plastered on his face, the Digimon Emperor stood his ground with his gaze still fixed on the fierce battle overhead.

"Hey, you said once they came back, you'd explain!  So talk already!" A frustrated Davis practically shouted, ready to try to throttle him again. 

"Davis!" ExVeemon shouted, landing right beside his human partner.  "You wouldn't believe what I just heard," the blue dragon digimon began to chatter excitedly.  "It seems that we're working for the Digimon Emperor now, but it's not Ken, it's some dark thingamajigger that took over his body and--"

An unintentionally fierce glare from Davis' direction immediately silenced his digimon partner. By the tinges of hurt he could see in the boy's chocolate brown eyes, ExVeemon could tell that this was probably one of those things he was mentioning at a bad time.

Suddenly, to the surprise of all, the Emperor turned to face them, taking in everyone present with his gaze.  His eerie smirk widened.  "What do you think I've been doing in the time that you guys were sitting around twiddling your thumbs?"

He reached into the folds of his cape and pulled out a small, black device that resembled a matchbox.  

"What the heck is that?"  Davis was the first to voice what was on everyone but the Emperor's minds.

"This is the key to our victory," the young dictator said cryptically.

"Erm, okay." Puzzled, Davis scratched his head.  "So what kind of a lock can we open with that puny thing?"

While everyone else groaned at Davis' misinterpretation, the Emperor's expression contorted into something that resembled slight annoyance.  "Well maybe if you would stop being a moron and let me explain..." the dark-haired boy started as he ominously stomped towards the goggle-head.

"Hey, hey, let's not get nasty now.  We're supposed to be fighting Daemon, remember?" T. K. intervened, stepping in front of the Digimon Emperor before he could continue with his threat.

The regally dressed teenager gave a "humph" and turned his gaze back to the ebony night sky.  "Tell ExVeemon to place this on Daemon's back, as close to his neck as possible," he ordered the Digidestined in a voice void of emotion and held out the device towards them in his outstretched, black-gloved hand.

"What?! Are you nuts?!?"  Davis and ExVeemon exclaimed simultaneously.

"That's suicide!" T. K. joined in.

"No way we're going to let him do that unless you tell us why!" Yolei snapped.  

The rest of the Digidestined and their digimon gave the Emperor determined looks in support of their comrades.

"I don't have much time.  Despite his appearance, Ghoulmon's energy is running out.  I'll explain it as soon as you do what I tell you," the Digimon Emperor hurriedly said, his indigo eyes darting back and forth to keep up with the battle.  He grit his teeth in concentration as he struggled to telepathically command his banded digimon to perform a tricky aerial maneuver to avoid Daemon's latest barrage of fire.

Cody growled, "And just why should we tru--?"

"You don't have a choice but to trust me."  His arm still extended, he shook it once for emphasis, as if re-offering the device.

"It's okay, guys; I'll do it," ExVeemon said.

"Are you sure about this, buddy?" Davis turned to his partner with concern written all over his face.

"Yeah, don't worry.  This'll be a piece of cake," the blue dragon digimon chirped.  "I just have to put that on him and run, right?"

"Without being a klutz and breaking it, yeah.  Keep in mind I only have one of these, and it may be the deciding factor in this battle, so don't screw up," the Emperor instructed as Davis took the device from him and gently put it in ExVeemon's claw.

"Gee, some pep talk," ExVeemon muttered.

"Just shut your trap and go," the Emperor scowled.

"Fine, fine, I'm going, but if I die, can someone work on my game of Donkey Madness until I come back?"

"GO!" the Emperor roared, whirling around to glare daggers at the insolent digimon.

"Yikes! All right, all right!" The turquoise digimon took to the skies before the despotic boy decided to turn Ghoulmon on him.

No sooner had he took flight when the Digidestined turned to the Emperor, mouths open and ready to bombard him with questions about his plan, but before they could do so, the young tyrant barked out another order.

"I'm going to need Angewomon and Magna Angemon as well.  Make Gatomon and Angemon digivolve into them now!"

For a moment, everyone's inquiring faces were replaced with shocked-silent ones.  

"Wh-what? Are you kidding?!" T. K. finally managed to sputter out.

The indigo-haired boy waved off his questions and acted as if nothing were out of the ordinary.  "Well, what are you just standing there for?  We don't have much time.  Hurry up and do as I say!"

"Hold the phone, buddy--and I use that term loosely."  Davis crossed his arms over his chest.  "We're not doing anything else for you until you tell us why my partner is risking his neck to plant your stupid doohickey on that horned creep."

"I told you I'd explain everything as soon as you did what I told you, didn't I?" the Emperor seethed like a frustrated parent trying to convince his stubborn little children to do their chores.  "Do this one more thing, and I'll tell you everything you need to know."

"Only one problem, Einstein," Cody hissed as Silphymon and Shakkoumon split into their champion-level component digimon, prepared to follow the Emperor's orders. "It's been a while since Gatomon and Angemon have been able to digivolve into their ultimate forms, but even if that weren't a problem, it's not as if we have the Digicores around to give them enough power to do so like we did four years ago."

"Uhm...Cody," piped up his giant, yellow partner digimon who stomped closer to him.  "There may actually be a way..."

"What?"  The bearer of the Digieggs of Knowledge and Reliability gave Ankylomon a puzzled look.

"He's right."  Aquilamon landed on the sands nearby next to Yolei.  "If I give the last of my energy to Gatomon, and Ankylomon gives the last of his to Angemon, they may have enough power to digivolve into Angewomon and Magna Angemon without the aid of Crests or Digicores."

The chilling smirk returned to the Emperor's face. "Not bad for a birdbrain.  You managed to figure that out all by yourself. I'm surprised. Now shut up and do it!"  He finished with a scowl.

"Wait, what'll happen to you two, Aquilamon?"  Gatomon asked with concern.  "If you donate the last of your energy..." Out of the corner of her crystal blue eyes, she spotted Wormmon hanging his head in despair. The small, insect digimon must have remembered the time he donated his energy to help Magnamon defeat Chimeramon.  

"Don't worry," Ankylomon assured her and everyone present.  "We still have enough energy left in us to remain in our in-training forms after we help you guys out."

"Then let's get this over with, so that we can get to the bottom of whatever this jerk has in mind," growled T. K., cocking his head towards the Emperor, whose facial expression hadn't changed in the slightest.

All of a sudden, a faint yellow light surrounded both Aquilamon and Ankylomon, who both slowly began to shrink.  Moments later, the same light began to glow around Gatomon and Angemon.

"I hope this works."  A ray of light burst from Ankylomon towards Angemon.

"Good luck, you two." A simultaneous burst came from Aquilamon and traveled to Gatomon.

"Angemon digivolve to...."

"Gatomon digivolve to..."

"It looks like explaining time for you, Emperor," Yolei shot towards her former boyfriend as she gently picked up an exhausted Poromon.  Cody did the same for his equally tired Upamon.

"Magna Angemon!"

"Angewomon!"

The two angel digimon hovered in the air to await the Emperor's explanation as well.

The young dictator gave a slight growl, "Fine, but just be aware that I'm still fighting my own battle here, so don't gripe if decide to pause for a second or two."

~~~

In the meantime, ExVeemon was having a hard time trying to even follow the two viral combatants, much less sneak up on Daemon. 

Although most of the Demon Lord's concentration was focused on the larger threat of Ghoulmon, Daemon still suspected the pesky blue digimon was up to something, so he made sure his back was never turned to him for a millisecond.

"Death Arrow!"

Reflexively, Daemon dodged the black blast to the side—right into ExVeemon's path.

'Now's my chance!' the champion-level digimon thought.

Putting on an extra burst of speed with his arm outstretched and ready to tag him with the device, ExVeemon shot like a bullet towards Daemon.

Ghoulmon also flew towards his opponent, but instead of Daemon sticking around for a grappling match as the Emperor had intended, Daemon let himself drop a few yards below.  

ExVeemon had to struggle to veer away at his speed to avoid running into Ghoulmon.

"Hey, watch it, you overgrown eyeball!" the vaccine digimon yelled from a safe distance away at the Emperor's pet.

Ghoulmon gave him a deadly look with his single, giant red eye that mimicked the Emperor's.  

ExVeemon imagined that Ghoulmon would have shot something other than a glare at him if it hadn't been for Daemon firing another Chaos Flare at his formidable opponent.

This was definitely _not_ going to be easy all right.

~~~

"So you're all wondering what's in my black box, eh?" spoke the Emperor, his voice resonating over the beach so that all the Digidestined and their digimon could hear but not loud enough to allow Daemon to listen in.  "It's simple really.  Inside that device I put a chip with a program that will rewire the flow of information in Daemon's physical composition, ultimately freezing up his data and leaving him vulnerable to attack."

"Hold it, Emperor," interrupted T. K.  "This is Daemon we're talking about.  I don't think it's that easy to beat him."

"Yeah, otherwise someone like Skull Satamon, who froze up Imperial Dramon last time, could easily have come along and already beat him," Cody remarked.

"Daemon's powerful enough to fry that thing even if it did succeed in paralyzing him."  Yolei shivered and hugged Poromon closer.

"Hah, looks like you aren't that smart after all, Ichijouji," Davis mocked. 

The Digimon Emperor clenched his fists in fury.  If there were anything he absolutely would not tolerate it was being criticized.  "You don't think I know that?!  Let me finish you worthless pea brains!"  He was half-turned, ready to pull out his whip and teach them a lesson when out of the corner of his eye he saw Daemon hammer Ghoulmon down towards the ocean.  

The Emperor scowled and turned back to the battle.  If he weren't handicapped like this, he would have really given them something to joke about.

Taking a deep breath to clear his mind, he continued in a surprisingly calmer voice, "I then expect him to expend an enormous amount of dark energy in an attempt to destroy the device placed on him.  That's why I put a second device inside that box."

~~~

Daemon barreled down through the sky like a hawk swooping in for its prey.  His glowing palm outstretched, he was ready to shoot a finishing attack at his still falling opponent.

Ghoulmon was close to deletion; he could sense it.  As he flew in closer and closer, he gave his worthy foe one last look over.  The other mega-level virus digimon remained still with his large eye shut, and he seemed to make no attempt to pull up even though he was plummeting like a stone towards the monstrous ocean below.

'No matter,' Daemon thought, 'this battle was mine right from the start.'  Fire building up around his extended claw, he let out his final attack.  "Chaos Flare!"

~~~

Small beads of sweat trickled down the Emperor's furrowed brow.  Inside his mind, he struggled frenetically to reestablish his mental connection with his banded slave, while on the outside, his voice was becoming more emotionless, as if he were an automaton reciting a written explanation.  "As soon as the outer part of the device is destroyed, the second component will absorb the energy expended and use it to power a mechanism that will attract and enhance that the powers that best counteract the viral energy it feeds off."

"The powers that best counteract the viral energy…?"  Yolei thought aloud.

~~~

Accelerated by Daemon's dive, a stream of fire rained down upon the unresponsive Ghoulmon.

Just as the flames were about to lick the outside of the falling form, Ghoulmon's massive eye opened, and he steered himself out of harm's way in the nick of time.

"What?! Impossible!" the crimson-robed digimon screamed.

From the sandy beach the Emperor saw his chance.

Because he hadn't expected Ghoulmon to recover so quickly, Daemon hadn't given a thought to stopping any time soon.   Now that he saw that the banded digimon had miraculously dodged his attack, Daemon hastily tried to pull up, but it was too late.

Hovering in midair for a split second longer, Ghoulmon caught Daemon in a firm bear hug as the Demon Lord fell past him.

'Gotcha!' the Emperor thought to himself.

Daemon struggled to get free, but Ghoulmon's grip was solid as steel, giving ExVeemon enough time to quickly swoop in and set the device over the back of Daemon's neck before flying away as fast as his wings would let him.

'Playtime's over.'

~~~

"Counteract?" Davis' clueless expression begged his friends for help.  Unfortunately, no one thought that this was a good time to give him a vocabulary lesson.

"Of course!" Cody pounded a fist into his other open palm.  "Virus digimon are vulnerable to powers from a vaccine digimon.  Their powers would best counteract Daemon's viral powers."

"Which is why you wanted us to call Angewomon and Magna Angemon—they're both vaccine digimon whereas Silphymon and Shakkoumon are data type," Kari chipped in.

The Emperor smirked, though it remained a mystery as to whether it was because they had figured it out or because his device was starting to take effect.

~~~

Daemon's vocal chords seemed to be the only part of his body that was responding as he howled in panic.  "What's going on?!  What sort of trick is this?"

However, even that function was starting to slip from his grasp.  

Seeing that Daemon no longer needed to be contained, Ghoulmon released him, letting the Demon Lord hover under his own telekinetic powers, and backed away, as per the Emperor's orders.

'This is all Ichijouji's doing!' Daemon mentally exclaimed.  'It must be the object that annoying gnat put on me.  Well, if he thinks that piece of scrap metal can hold me, he is seriously mistaken.'

A faint, black glow engulfed the mega, virus-type digimon and slowly began to increase in intensity.

This was what the Emperor had been waiting for.

~~~

"Hurry, before he regains control of his body!  Send them out to attack at once!"  With a flutter of his cape, the Emperor whirled around to face the Digidestined, now that he didn't have to control Ghoulmon's actions.

"I think he means us.  Ready, Magna Angemon?"

"I'm way ahead of you."  The archangel digimon was already rocketing towards the incapacitated Demon Lord.  

Holding their breath in anticipation, all six teenagers and three digimon watched intently from the shore.

All the while, the dark energy radiating from Daemon was growing more and more intense.  

"Angewomon," Magna Angemon called back, "it looks like he'll break free any second."

"I get your drift."  Still soaring at extraordinary speed, Angewomon transformed her left hand into a bow and summoned an arrow in her right hand.  "Celestial Arrow!"

With a furious roar, Daemon destroyed the outer shell of the device, as expected, and stretched out his arms and wings.  But the Demon Lord couldn't help feel that there was still something wrong with him. 

He didn't have time to ponder that, though, for he barely caught a glimpse of the light attack before it stuck him in the side.

Daemon let out a shriek of both pain and surprise.  Although the battle with Ghoulmon had weakened him, an attack like that shouldn't have caused him as much agony as it did.

"Excalibur!"  Magna Angemon slashed at Daemon with his energy blade before backing off to let Angewomon have another crack at him.

"Heaven's Charm!" Angewomon put her hands together and spread them out, hitting Daemon with an arc of pink energy.

Magna Angemon and Angewomon continued to barrage him with their attacks, not letting up for a second.  

"Finish him off! Now!"  The Emperor's booming voice carried on the wind and reached the two angel digimons' ears.

"With pleasure." Magna Angemon flew back a little ways and formed a giant circle in the air with his magenta blade. "Gate of Destiny!"

A round, golden gate formed inside the circle and split in half, opening the way to oblivion.

Immobilized this time because of the damage he took, Daemon was unable to fight against the vortex that threatened to suck him in.  "This…isn't…possible!  How…could this…have happened?" he panted.  

"Oh it's very possible, Daemon," the Emperor murmured quietly.  "You dared to challenge me—a mistake that you'll forever regret in oblivion!"

"NO!!!" Daemon's wails of terror were silenced as the golden disk shut over him.

The Digimon Emperor closed his eyes and let out a sigh of relief.

They had won.

~~~

"All right! Do we rule or what?" Davis excitedly punched a fist in air.  ExVeemon touched down on the beach and dedigivolved into Veemon as he ecstatically ran over to his partner.

Yolei and Poromon cheered along with them, and Kari grinned wide as she watched her and T. K.'s digimon return and dedigivolve into their rookie forms.  "Salamon, Patamon, you were great!"

In the meantime, Cody set down Upamon so that the in-training digimon could celebrate with the others, but he remained where he was and stole a quick glance at T. K.

A determined look in his eye, the tall, blond boy nodded perceptibly at him.  They hadn't forgotten their back-up plan all right.

Without warning, both teenage boys rushed at the Digimon Emperor in hopes of restraining him and dragging him back to the Real World.

However, the Emperor had no intention of falling for such a predictable move.

Seemingly out of nowhere an Airdramon with a Dark Band around its tail appeared overhead.  Just as the two Digidestined lunged for him, the lithe, dark-haired boy jumped up and flipped gracefully onto the back of the flying, snake-like digimon. 

The rest of the Digidestined immediately stopped their celebrating and incredulously craned their heads upward.

From where he perched on the hovering Airdramon, the Digimon Emperor cackled,  "Mwahahaha, not today fools!"

Yolei looked helplessly from her two failed comrades, to their tired digimon, and finally to the possessed love of her life. 

"No! Ken!" she cried desperately.  The bearer of the Digieggs of Love and Sincerity ran underneath the Airdramon and fixed her gaze upon the Emperor with tears threatening to stream from her eyes.  "You give him back now!"

Unfazed by her demand, he simply leered down upon her with a cruel smile.  "Oh, but Kenny boy and I still have so much more to do--so much of the Digital World to conquer, so little time."

He swept a cold gaze over the people below, who seemed like nothing more than defiant insects to him, until he spied what he was searching for in the Digidestined of Light's arms.

"Ah, just what I was looking for."  Faster than they could blink, the young tyrant snapped out his whip and mentally ordered the Airdramon to fly closer to his target.

"Kari, look out!" T. K. shouted.

Before the brunette could react, the Emperor had coiled his whip around Salamon and ripped the tiny puppy-like digimon from her arms.

"Kari, help!" Salamon cried powerlessly.

The scarlet-eyed girl watched the retreating form of her digimon in horror. "Salamon, no!"

After quieting his newly captured digimon with a Dark Band, the indigo-haired boy looked over his shoulder to spy an orange digimon coming up his way.

"You give her back!" screeched Patamon in his high-pitched voice.

On the ground, T. K.'s face had turned pale.  "Patamon, no, stay away!"

The Emperor smirked.  "Right on time, my flying fuzz ball!"  He whipped out another Dark Band from behind his back and threw it at the incoming rookie digimon.

"No!"  T. K. fell to his knees as he saw the band wrap around Patamon and his digimon partner's eyes glow red.

Seeing the despair in Digidestined's eyes, the Emperor laughed more maniacally than ever, but he paused for a moment to deliver his ultimatum.  "If you ever want to see your little friends again, just ask Yolei!"  With that, the Airdramon began to rise.

"Ken, wait!"  Wormmon who had witnessed the entire thing in silent horror next to Yolei now scurried after the retreating digimon.

"Wormmon, what are you doing?!"  After all that had happened, the lavender-haired girl didn't want anyone else leaving them.  Dropping Poromon, she tried to stop the insect digimon, but he was too fast for her.

"Silk Thread!"  Wormmon shot a line of webbing at the Airdramon's tail and was pulled up in the process out of the girl's reach.

"Wormmon, no!  Come back!" Yolei shrieked in anguish.  "We can't lose you, too!"

It was too late, though.

Wormmon in tow and the round figure of Ghoulmon joining him, the Emperor flew up into the clouds and disappeared from sight.

***

Gwen: You're stopping there?

G: *looks as if she's going to kill her* What do you think?!?  This chapter's freaking 5300, I repeat, 5300 words long for Pete's sake!

Gaia: Aw, come on, G.  Just because I forced you to write the longest chapter we've ever written, doesn't mean you have to take it out on her.

G: *looks at Gaia as if she's going to kill her too* You suck.

Gaia: You blow.

G: You suck and blow!

Yolei: *pops her head in* Did someone ask for a game of suck-and-blow?

Gaia and G: No!!

Yolei: *pops head back out*

G: (puzzled) Since when has she able to participate in these end-of-chapter notes?

Gaia: Now I guess.

G: Oh, ok.  Wanna go grab some hot tea? I'm tired.

Gaia: Sure, let's go.

Gwen: ^_^;;;


	7. Mourning Interlude

There's No Rest for the Wicked

Disclaimer: I pity the fool that thinks Digimon is mine. (G: *shakes head in disapproval at the Mr. T imitation*)

A/N: Ok, since both of the inaccuracies I've made so far occurred when G was in charge of something, (G: WHAT????) I think I'll take over the writing from here. (G: Oh, okay, go right ahead. ^_^) Sheesh. -_-;  The correction to the last chapter's explained there and has already been accounted for.

  
G: You know, Gaia, you're not doing a very good job disproving the myth that sequels are usually worse than the original.   
Gaia: What are you talking about?!?   
G:  Well, so far you've made 2 major mistakes whereas in "Reflection" we hardly made any.   
Gaia: (grumbling) No thanks to you.   
G: And, your updates are less frequent than they were last summer.   
Gaia: (still grumbling) I'd like to see you try to write fanfics while participating a 10-hour long preceptorship program every weekday last month….   
G: Not to mention our endnotes have stunk lately.   
Gaia:…Okay, I can't argue with you there…but can we at least start the fic so I can atone for all of those.  The best part of this story hasn't even begun. *pulls out a 3 meter high pile of notes*   
G: *gawks at the stack* You've got to be kidding me!   
Gaia: Nope, now get out of my way so that I can continue this fic to thank all the reviewers who have supported me through my blunders thus far.   
G: (muttering) Some thanks.   
Gaia: *kicks G out the second story window* :-) I miss doing that. 

***

Chapter 7 – Mourning Interlude

"This can't be happening…" The turnabout events of the past few minutes starting to sink in, Kari was on the verge of fainting.  

Davis caught her before she could collapse, however, and did his best to comfort her.

Meanwhile, Yolei slumped to the ground, her eyes clearly asking the question that was on everybody's minds: "Why?"

After several moments, T. K. was able to pick himself up off the wet sands and stagger towards Yolei.  On his haggard face lingered another equally important question that only she could answer.

"Yolei," he croaked out hoarsely.  The girl looked up at him vacantly.  It was obvious this ordeal had taken its costly toll on her, but he had to ask.  "What did he mean by ask you if we ever wanted to see them again?"

Twin streams of tears leaked from her wavering eyes, and she shook her head slowly.  Her voice suddenly lost from her, she mouthed her answer to him. _I don't know._

Looking from one group of friends to the other, Cody decided it might be wiser to join T. K. and Yolei, if he wanted to get to the bottom of things.

With Upamon forlornly bounding up beside him, he slowly ambled over to the blonde and the lavender-haired girl in a half-dazed manner, as if waking up from what he hoped was simply a nightmare.  Looking at the distraught female teenager with a sympathetic expression, he hesitated to ask what was on his mind, but some hardened side of him urged him to speak.

"Why do you suppose he took only Salamon and Patamon?  I mean, he could have taken all of our digimon just as easily," Cody stated in as levelheaded a fashion as he could, reaching down to pick up Upamon and hold him protectively.

For the slightest moment he saw a twinge of pain in T. K.'s eyes, but the Digidestined of Hope collected himself in time to respond, "I'm not quite sure what he has up his sleeve, but I do know this: we have got to get them back before he follows through with whatever dirty scheme he has in mind for them."

"It could be that he just wants to prevent us from having any DNA-digivolved digimon on our side."

The hushed voice coming from the lavender-haired girl on the ground startled the two teenage boys.

Yolei looked up to meet the eyes of both of them.  "Just because I feel as if my heart's been torn to pieces by a Snimon doesn't mean I can't or won't contribute anything to a discussion concerning Ken."

"Yolei…" Cody started.

The girl shook her head.  "I of all people should know him the best—how he thinks, how he would act."  She began to struggle to her feet.  "If it helps get my man back, I'll do everything I can to help."

T. K. and Cody rushed to her side to support her weakened body, and she gratefully accepted, knowing full well that she probably couldn't keep up her charade of strength any longer.

"Come on, guys," she said, looking from T. K. to Cody to Upamon and Poromon and hobbling towards Davis, Veemon, and Kari.  "Let's go back to the Real World and get the other Digidestined to help us make a plan."

The other three nodded with equal resolve and stumbled alongside the reinvigorated girl, who was determined not to rest until the love of her life had come back to her, safe from the clutches of darkness.

~~~

Meanwhile, in an unknown part of the sleeping Digital World, a dark, bulky figure and a long, snake-like shadow glided stealthily into a newly opened hole in a rock wall.

The fresh aperture led not to some small, craggy crevice, nor to a dark, winding series of caverns, but to the inside of a black metallic fortress, hidden beneath a rocky shell.

Once the two flying beasts entered a large chamber with a ceiling four stories high, the rounder one flew up and disappeared into one of the dozens of doorways scattered across the room's tall, circular wall.  The longer one stopped in the center of the chamber and let two of four other creatures fall off its back: one an overgrown worm that was bound by a strong, black whip, the other a humanoid dressed in a tight navy blue outfit with a two-pronged cape.

Then the snake-like creature, too, flew up and disappeared down one of the dark doorways--leaving the two smaller figures alone, such that what transpired afterward was only witnessed by them.

The human teenager didn't seem to acknowledge the struggling insect digimon that had fallen a several meters away from him as he staggered towards a door at the far side of the room.  He had only taken a few steps when some kind of internal pain forced him to double over and fall to his knees on the hard, metallic floor.  In spite of the bitter cold of the room, sweat dripped down his pallid face.

"How dare you!"  Ken's voice roared from the boy's body.  "You promised that you'd leave as soon as we defeated Daemon."

**"Oh come on, Mr. Kind and Gentle, I never said such a thing," came the Emperor's voice from the same boy, whose face had twisted into an evil smirk.**** "If you recall, I never made any promises.  It was your own delusional bull-headedness that got you into this predicament." **

Ken's cries burst to the surface soon after.  "But you said, this would only be for a little while, that it's not permanent!"  

**"Well, it's not my fault that my 'little while' is our entire life time and that we'll die before it's proven that this is not permanent."  The Emperor poked fun at him, an evil grin appearing.**

"That's not funny, you lying son of a--!" 

**"Ah, ah, ah, watch that mouth of yours.  You know how your girlfriend _hates it when you swear.  Oh, that's right.  The little lady probably doesn't want to be your girlfriend anymore, not after what I—or should I say, you—pulled.  Knowing that hormone-driven slut, she's already fallen for some other guy…perhaps your best friend even," the cruel tyrant taunted._**

"Don't you dare…" Ken suddenly went into a coughing fit not long after he managed to talk.  "What's happening?  It's getting harder for me to…." Another fit of coughs broke him off.

**"You're pathetic.  I can't believe you don't remember what such negative emotions do to you; they make you weaker, and me only stronger."  The Emperor cackled.  ****"Oh this is rich!  I'm only one step away from gaining complete control, and you don't even know it.  Just one more negative emotion is all I need, and I've already evoked the one that I couldn't get from you four years ago."  He was about to let out another round of maniacal laughter, but he astonishingly found himself short of breath.******

"...That's where you're wrong, Digimon Emperor," Ken gasped, doing his best to keep calm.  "Even though it doesn't show, I've been keeping score right along with you.  The only thing standing between you and complete control over me is Envy!"

**"Hmph, you think you're very clever for figuring that out, don't ya?  Think you're another Sam, do you?"**

"No, I don't," Ken boldly stated, standing up and turning around to look at the little digimon who was watching him with worried blue eyes.  Taking a few tentative steps toward his captive partner, the Digidestined of Kindness continued, "You can't trick me this time.  I've put my jealousy of Sam behind me.  I know I can never be him, just like he'd never be me had he lived.  I'll always simply be Ken, and that's fine by me."

"Ken..."  By now, the teenager was only two meters away from Wormmon, who was smiling at him with watery eyes.  The insect digimon tried even harder now to break free, so that he could scurry to his partner.

The indigo-haired teenager had the same idea in mind, and was ready to run to him, too, but his inner darkness wasn't about to let him have his happiness.  With a cry of pain, the boy fell to one knee in agony.

"Ken!"  Wormmon called anxiously.

**"Oh, no you don't!  You're not going to regain control if I have anything to do with it!  Don't forget, Kenny boy, after all that happened today, I'm still the stronger side.  I _will make you feel that last dark emotion, and I __will conquer the Digital World, just you wait."_**

"No...I won't...let you...You'll never...make me envy...Sam...again..."  Ken wheezed.

The Emperor scoffed.  **"Don't be so naive.  There are many forms of jealousy out there; Sam was just easy fuel.  I'll make you furious with envy by the week's end--you can count on that.  And soon the Digital World will be mine!"**

"NO!!"  Ken wailed in despair, feeling control of his body slowly slipping from his grasp.  "I can't--"

**"Go take a chill pill."  With that the Emperor stood up and snidely looked down upon the digimon who would have been free had he let his other persona stay in charge for any longer.  **

It was clear by the icy look in his narrow blue eyes that Ken had lost this battle and wouldn't be able to return any time soon.****

**"Oh, Wormmon," he said in an oily voice, ****"how I've missed _playing with you.  It's been years since I've beaten a digimon, and lucky you--you get to be my first victim."_**

The Digimon Emperor licked his lips, savoring the look of absolute terror in the poor digimon's eyes as he cast his dark shadow over him in the dimly lit chamber.  He bent down, grabbed the handle of his whip, and with a flick of his wrist, sent the forlorn digimon flying across the room.  

The Emperor stalked after him like a tiger after the prey it's toying with, all the while recoiling his whip.

Wormmon was too dazed, and more importantly, too broken-hearted, to avoid the black piece of leather that shot like lightning towards him. 

~~~

"Uhm, Kari?" Davis squeaked, unconsciously almost waking up a sleeping Veemon by squeezing him more tightly in his arms.

Kari slowly turned around to face him, her dull amber eyes meeting his chocolate brown ones as the two of them stepped out of the elevator and walked down the breezy hallway to her apartment.

After meeting up with the others, they had all come to the conclusion—except for Yolei, who needed more persuasion—that it was best to rest up before contacting the older Digidestined and making any future battle plans.  Since Cody, T. K., and Yolei still lived in the same apartment complex, they went to their own homes after exiting the Digital World through T. K.'s port, which had been the nearest.

So, Davis took it upon himself to escort Kari home.  However, the long trek had been silent up until now, with Davis unable to find anything to say, for once, to the gloomy Digidestined of Light.

"Well, I, uh…" he started, slowly gathering up courage, "I-I know this isn't the time for this, but after what just happened…I just gotta know."  He took a deep breath before blurting out the question plaguing his mind. "Do you like me or T. K. better?"

Kari's crystal eyes widened, and her delicate mouth opened slightly but was far from being able to emit a sound.

"I-I'm sorry if this upsets you or anything," he hastily added, stopping alongside her in front of the door to her apartment, "but back there…I-I almost lost you…" He took another deep breath.  "…And you almost lost him.  I just want this to be out in the open now…you know, in case we never have a chance to say anything to each other again."

The goggle-headed boy looked down, sure that he had just made the biggest fool in the world out of himself in front of the girl he liked the most.

"Davis," Kari spoke gently, resting a soft hand on the side of his worn face.  

The teenager raised his head slightly, a bit surprised that she was still talking to him but grateful for it.  

She smiled slightly and whispered, "Did you know what I like about you most is how energetic and courageous you are?" 

Hope filling his eyes, Davis started to say something, but Kari laid a single finger on his lips to quiet him before continuing, "However, sometimes you can get carried away.  On the other hand, T. K. is more responsible, and that's what I like most about him." 

At this, Davis averted his eyes, sure that this was going to turn into a rejection speech.  

However, Kari's soothing hand turned his head toward her so that their eyes met.  "Then again, sometimes T. K. can take his sense of duty too far.  What I'm trying to say is, I don't like you any more than I like him--or Cody or Yolei or Ken, for that matter.  You're all my friends, and you're all equal to me."

The Digidestined of Light could have sworn she saw a hint of sadness in his dark brown eyes.  

"I hope I haven't hurt your feelings," she apologized quietly, removing her hand and looking down.

A small gust of wind blew between them, stirring Kari's short, russet-brown hair a little, but it died down not long after it had come. 

A moment of silence passed before Davis squeaked, "So, you're saying that T. K. and I are on the same level?"

Kari wordlessly nodded her head, ready to handle any whimpering she was certain she'd hear from him.

"All right!" Davis jumped up and cheered, punching a fist in the air.

Kari gave a start.  Before she could ask him if he'd lost his mind, the goggle-wearing boy exclaimed, "That means you don't like him more than me! I still have a chance!"

Davis took both of Kari's hands excitedly in his.  "And here I thought you were starting to fall for him!  Now that I know I can still win, I'll redouble my efforts to earn your love, Kari.  This is the happiest moment in my life!"

As a shocked Kari stood there with her jaw open and too flustered to explain, Davis dashed towards the stairs, a surprisingly still asleep Veemon in his arms.  Over his shoulder, he shouted back, "I'll see you tomorrow then, Kari, bright and early.  Hey, maybe we can walk to school together or something.  Boy, wait 'til I tell Veemon what he missed!"

 Kari could only shake her head slowly and smile while she watched the ecstatic teenager disappear down the stairway. "Gee, can't wait," she mumbled to herself dryly.  

As she turned the key in the lock of her front door, she sighed.  That boy never learns.

Distractedly, she flung the door open and at first didn't notice the brunette male that fell through the doorway.  "What the--? Tai?!?  What are you doing here?"

"Oh, uh, hi, Kari.  Fancy meeting you here this time of night."  He sweat-dropped heavily.

Kari shook her head and smiled in the same manner she had with Davis.  "Big brother, don't you know you're supposed to be staying in the dorm?  What, did you come back just to spy on me?" she teased.  

"N-No, of course not, I just came back to return something mom told me she needed when she called."

"Mom called you…?" She raised an eyebrow.  "What for?"  

"Erm…nothing, definitely nothing about you being in trouble or anything…heh heh…Hey," he piped up, looking around for something to change the subject, "where's Gatomon?"

Kari's amber eyes softened at the mention of her partner's name, and they quickly began to fill with water.

The former leader of the Digidestined had a sudden, sinking feeling—the same kind he got whenever he broke something by playing soccer in the apartment. "Kari?" he asked tentatively.

"Oh, Tai!"  She launched herself at her older brother and buried her face in his chest, letting a deluge of tears flow. 

The older brunette wrapped comforting arms around her, like in the old days when Kari would run to him whenever she was scared.  

But he had to remember that his little sister wasn't a child anymore.  Whatever had happened to make her act like this must have been bad news.  

"It's okay, Kari," he soothed, unsure of what else he could say. "Get inside and tell me all about it."

Still quietly sobbing against him, the Digidestined of Light trudged inside, barely hearing her older brother closing the door behind them.

~~~

A full moon hung ominously in the sky like an owl watching for its prey.  The lavender-haired girl found herself standing on hard, parched ground, a gaping gorge not too far away from her.

'This place feels so familiar…where am I?' Yolei thought to herself.  She could have sworn that she'd gone to bed a few minutes ago crying her head off.

A strangled gasp to her right caught her attention.  She swung around in that direction—to see her 12-year-old self being strangled by a younger version of the Emperor who had recently slipped out of her grasp. 

_"K-Ke-en?" the other girl croaked._

Yolei watched as the boy gave her throat one last tight squeeze and released his deadly grip on her. "What the heck is this?  Is this some kind of dream?"  The present Yolei questioned herself. 

Meanwhile, the younger girl collapsed to the ground in a gasping heap, both hands immediately flying up to her sore neck. 

The figure looming above her crossed his arms over his chest and turned his side towards her.

Yolei's eyes grew wide, and realization dawned on her.  "Of course!  How could I have forgotten?  This is from when Ken and I defeated the Emperor four years ago.  It's what brought us together…"

****

**_"Never, ever call me that again," the other Emperor warned slowly and menacingly. _**

"But why am I remembering this now?  What good is it for me to watch this painful part?"

The answer to her questions came soon enough.

Turning his back to her, the indigo-haired Emperor walked over to the edge of the cliff he had been standing on earlier and remarked a little more casually, **_"A suitable spot for a new base, wouldn't you say? The walls of this canyon will guard it well, and the only way to access it would be to fly or climb down, giving me more time to see my enemies coming."_**

Yolei gasped.  She only had mere seconds to study their location before the vision faded.

~~~

Her heart pounding against her chest, the lavender-haired girl woke up with a start.  "That's it!  That's what he meant!" she immediately exclaimed.

She jumped out of bed and began to change.  "Poromon, I've got to meet with the others now!  This can't wait until after school, or even morning."

"Yolei…" the voice of Hawkmon greeted her instead.

Pulling a blouse over her head and going off to find a miniskirt, she didn't give a glance his way as she interrupted, "Oh, Hawkmon, you're back?  Good, then that means the others must be rested up enough, too.   Grab the phone in the hallway for me would ya, it's time to give everyone a wake up call."

"But Yolei…"

"No arguing, Hawkmon!"  She grabbed a bandana from the closet and was on her way to pick up the glasses on her dresser.

"But Yolei, it's--!"

"Yolei!" Mimoe Inoue called from outside her door, startling the 16-year-old girl.  "Aren't you up yet?  You're going to be late for school!"

The lavender-haired girl gave a start.  "What the--?" She instantly grabbed her glasses to check what time it was.

8:30 A. M.

Hawkmon sweat-dropped.  "I tried to tell you, it's already morning."

The bird digimon could have sworn he saw steam coming from her ears as her face turned a brilliant red. 

"Uh, oh…" In a flash, Hawkmon took off towards the door.  He knew what this meant, and he didn't want his eardrums within breaking range.

Just as he reached the door, Yolei exploded, "WHY DIDN'T YOU SAY SOMETHING EARLIER!?!" 

On the streets outside, a few alert passersby thought they saw the apartment building shake slightly, but they shook it off, believing it was their imaginations, and continued on their oblivious ways. 

~~~

"Whoa, good thing I'd already left for school," T. K. commented to Hawkmon when he'd told the blonde human what had happened that morning.

The bird digimon flew down from the tree he was perched in outside of the school.  Since digimon weren't allowed at school, he had to hide outside until classes were over, along with the other Digidestined's digimon, so that they could meet later to form a plan.

"Yes, unfortunately I hadn't," Hawkmon replied.  "She then yelled at me for not waking her up sooner, but then she changed her mind and said something about being lucky she hadn't missed her dream."

"A dream?"  Armadillomon crawled over from where he'd been napping behind the tree.

"Was it a nice dream?"  Veemon asked beside T. K.

Hawkmon answered, "I'm not sure.  She didn't say anything more about it when she remembered that she would be late for school and hauled me over here."

"Well, as soon as Izzy arrives like he promised earlier at lunch, we can all go to the computer lab and meet everyone," T. K. assured.

"And I do mean everyone," said a voice behind them.

"Izzy!" The Digidestined of Hope whirled around and greeted his old friend, smiling from ear to ear.  "Did you get ahold of the web cam?"

"Right here."  The redhead patted the bag slung over his shoulder.  "I had to track down a few members of the Computer Club during the last two periods, but this way, we can consult all the other Digidestined over the Internet, even those that went to college on the other side of the world."

"Well, then, what are we waiting for?  Let's go!" T. K. said as he and the three digimon ran off towards the school entrance.

Before he followed suit, Izzy turned his small smile into a slight frown.  It would be nice to see everyone together again, but under what circumstances?  To halt another interworld crisis?  For once he'd like to have a reunion with everyone when the Digital World wasn't on the verge of crashing.  Maybe one day that would happen.  

Shaking such wishful thoughts out of his head, Izzy jogged after the blonde teenager.  Maybe one day, but not any time soon.

~~~

  
**_rockinstar __has joined the chatroom.   
_****_CompMaster:__ Great, is everyone here now?   
_****_rockinstar:__ you're lucky i don't have to sleep early   
_****_digitalbeauty:__ same here   
_****_digitalbeauty: __just because all of you are in japan and we're in america doesn't mean you can deprive us of our beauty sleep   
_****_CompMaster: __Mimi, this is serious.  The Digital World is at stake.   
_****_CompMaster: __Now, Matt, turn on your web cam so you can join the rest of us.   
_****_rockinstar:__ roger _**

The younger Digidestined crowded closer around Izzy in a relatively quiet corner of the bustling Computer Room as another window popped up on the monitor, showing a very tired-looking Matt.  At their feet, their rookie-level digimon eagerly chowed down on the snacks they'd brought.

"Hey, Matt, great to see ya!" greeted Tai from one of the other windows.  "How's the university in Florida going?"

"It's going okay, I guess.  The astronomy course I'm taking is really interesting, though," answered the Digidestined of Friendship.

"Hey, cut the chatter, you guys, we have more important things to take care of," Sora interrupted from the lower right hand corner of the monitor.

"Yeah, and the sooner we get this over with, the sooner I can get back to studying for the anatomy exam I have to take in two days," Joe chirped.

"Okay, okay, so here's the deal," Izzy said before anyone else could introduce a non-Digital World related topic.  It'd taken him an hour just to get everyone together even with the use of emergency alert e-mails and cell phone calls.  "Ken's turned into the Emperor again, and we have to stop him before he takes over the Digital World.  Everyone with me so far?"

Nods were abundant all over the monitor.

"Now Yolei's on the brink of strangling me, claiming she knows the location of his base so we can attack it--"

"But I do know the location of the base!"  Yolei yelled, a bit too close to Izzy's ear.

The red head let out a cry of pain and clutched his probably deaf right ear.  "All right, all right, lemme just pull up a map here and you can show us..."

Izzy opened a program he'd just installed on the computer they were using—the same program they'd used to track Ken's conquests all those years ago, with an added feature that would give a current, detailed picture of any area they wanted.

"I'm sending you guys a copy of the map, too, so that you can see what we're seeing," he stated to all five of the online viewers.  "Now let's see...This'll pull up the old checkerboard map of the Digital World since it takes the others longer to load, so don't be surprised if you get a blank--Holy cow!"  17-year-old's eyes nearly bugged out of his head.

"Uh...Izzy, I know what you mean, but why did you send us a cow pattern?  I mean really, that went out of style months ago," the brunette girl in the lower left corner of the monitor asked.

"This is no pattern, Mimi," Izzy stated, staring hard at the splotches of black on the white map.  "The black spots are areas where the program's detected Control Spires, and the white areas are free parts of the Digital World.  But this can't be right.  According to this, over 40% of the Digital World is covered in Control Spires, which is impossible for one person to do overnight!"

T. K. laid a solemn hand on the computer genius' shoulder.  "This is Ken we're talking about, Izzy," he said gravely. "With that Dark Spore of his, anything's possible."

"But still...why would he need them...?" An unexpectedly quiet murmur came from his right side.

All eyes turned to the lavender-haired girl.

"Um, hello Yolei, don't you remember?"  Davis asked pretentiously.  "Even I know that he used them to control the digimon he's captured."

"That's just it.  I remember him saying four years ago that his Dark Bands don't require Control Spires."

Cody raised an eyebrow. "Four years ago? Yolei, he only used Dark Rings and Spirals four years ago.  We've never seen these Dark Bands of his before yesterday."

"Well I have, okay?!"  She suddenly shouted.

The younger Digidestined and digimon inadvertently took a step away from her.  Cody quickly scanned the room and saw that a few of the other high school students had taken notice, but they soon went back to their work—not wanting anything to do with their problems, no doubt.

"Uh…Yolei, do you want to explain?" Kari asked her friend in a nervous but soothing voice.

All eyes turned to the taller girl warily.  The Digidestined present expected another outburst, or perhaps for her to breakdown and cry, but instead, Yolei let out a heavy sigh and reluctantly told the story she and Ken had kept secret these past four years.

"Not long after we had defeated Malomyotismon, Ken's dark side came back and provoked him into taking over.  Wormmon was worried about Ken and asked me to keep an eye on him; that's when I found out the Emperor inside of him had come back and was preparing to take over the Digital World again with his Dark Bands.  Together, Ken and I drove his dark side back down inside of him, certain that he'd never surface again.  However, after that incident with Daemon…" Yolei's voice wavered, a lump forming in her throat.

Kari took one of the lavender-haired girl's hands.  "It's okay Yolei; we understand, though you really should have told us so that we could have kept a closer eye on him."

"You didn't want everyone else to worry about him, did you, Yolei?" came a female voice from the monitor.

"Sora…?"  The teenage girl looked back up at the monitor.

"As one girl who worries about her boyfriend to another, I know how you feel about this," Sora reassured, "but sometimes even the closest couples need help from their friends.  You two can't stand alone against everything, especially if one of you is in trouble."  

"I-I know, Sora, but it's just….argh, let's not worry about this now, 'kay? I need to get my boyfriend back.  Just pull up a map of the terrain so I can show you the location," Yolei pressed.

No sooner had she said this than a topographical outline appeared over the black and white one.

After surveying the land for a few minutes, she pointed a finger at a white area on the map.  "There! That's the gorge where I confronted him.  He was thinking of building a base there."

"Are you sure, Yolei?  I mean, there aren't any Control Spires within a ten kilometer radius," T. K. queried.

All of a sudden, Cody pounded a fist into his other palm and exclaimed, "Of course!" 

"What is it, Cody?" Izzy voiced for the rest of them, turning to face the growing boy.  

"Ken told us to ask Yolei if we wanted to find him.  If we didn't know the exact location, which we wouldn't have gotten without Yolei, we'd never suspect that place of being where his base was."  

"That's right!"  Izzy zoomed in on the deserted gorge.  "Hmm…the place looks pretty barren all right.  Rocks, dust, cliff, tumbleweeds--not a base anywhere, though.  If it were here, I'd never guess by the looks of it."

"Ken—I mean, the Emperor—hinted that it'd be on or inside one of the cliffs," Yolei said, taking the mouse from Izzy and zooming in on one of the gorge walls.  After some searching, she noticed an opening in one of the cliff faces.  "That must be the entrance!"

"Hey, Izzy, what's going on over there?  We can't see," Mimi whined.

"I can," said Joe.

"Just wait, Mimi; you're over in New York.  The connection's bound to be slower," Izzy advised hastily, taking screenshots of all views of the entrance and its surrounding area.

Davis clenched a hand from behind him.  "Well, now that we've got his location, what are we waiting for?  Let's go in there and bring Ken back!"

"Wait; don't rush this, Davis," T. K. interrupted.  "Remember he's got Control Spires everywhere and probably thousands of controlled digimon as well."  

It was Tai's turn to play leader.  "Well, let's get a whole bunch of International Digidestined and then storm his base."

Kari slowly shook her head.  Those two goggle heads were still too much alike.

"Tai, this is Ken we're going up against, not some evil digimon like in the old days," Matt countered.  "We've got to come up with some kind of strategy first, or we'll be creamed."

The Digidestined of Courage scoffed.  "Yeah, sure and in the meantime, the kid genius takes over all of the Digital World.  We need to act now."

Izzy groaned.  "Save the bickering for some other reunion, guys."  He minimized the map and logged into his Digidestined Society website on a separate browser.  "For now, I'm e-mailing all the new Digidestined alerting them of the new emergency and asking them for their help."  As he typed out the e-mail, he continued, "And you guys can start choosing groups of Digidestined to lead in the upcoming battle."

"Us?"

"Lead?"

Joe and Mimi, along with Sora and Matt, wore surprised looks on their faces.  Tai simply looked excited.

"Yes, what I have in mind is for us to each lead a group of Digidestined to try to knock out as many Control Spires as we can and free the digimon in the largest areas on this map.  Even if they don't power the Dark Bands, the Control Spires will still disrupt the balance of the Digital World, or maybe completely disable digivolving in the surrounding area.  While you guys lead the attack, these guys here," he indicated with a motion of his head over his shoulder, "will enter the base and try to bring Ken to his senses.  'Sounds like a plan?"

"All right!  We're going to save the Digital World again!" Tai cheered.

"Izzy, you're a genius!" Sora chimed.

"Count me in to help," Matt offered.

"Can I get back to you on that when I see if it fits into my schedule?" Joe asked.

Izzy ignored him for now and turned to the last of the five, "Mimi, are you going to lend us a hand, too?"

The girl in question put her finger to her mouth and looked up as if thinking.  "Well, I'll have to talk to Michael about it and see if he'll join in…" She then faced forward and clapped her hands.  "But even if he doesn't, I'll join in—to help out my beloved friends."

"Great! So when do we launch the attack?" Davis piped up.

"Well, I still need to get confirmation how many are going to participate…" Izzy started, preparing to send the e-mail.

Tai cut him off.  "How about first thing tomorrow after your school ends?" 

"'Sounds good to me," Davis said before the redheaded Digidestined of Knowledge could object.

"Fine, tomorrow, same time it is then," Matt agreed.  "I'll talk to you about it more when I get up.  I need to go to bed.  See ya!"  The blonde's face disappeared from the screen.

"Wait!" The computer whiz anxiously looked up from his work, but it was too late.

"Yeah, I gotta get my beauty rest also.  Talk to ya'll later."  Mimi's window also vanished.

"Well, since everything looks settled, I'd better get back to studying."  Within seconds, Joe was gone.

"Sorry, Izzy, afternoon practice awaits," Sora apologized.  "Contact me later, okay?"

Soon only Tai was left.  Izzy looked down disheartenedly and added an extra line to his e-mail to all the Digidestined around the world before sending it. _"P. S.  Please decide quickly, because we're attacking twenty-four hours from now."_

"Uh, I guess since everyone's gone…" Tai began.

"Oh, no you don't; you're staying here with us to plan this out more thoroughly," Izzy ordered.

The college freshman sighed.  "No nap for me I guess…"

"This is important, Tai," Kari scolded.

"Fine, what do you need first, Izzy?"

"You can help me plan out who gets the Digidestined from which continents for starters…" the redhead said.

This was going to be a long afternoon—everyone was sure of it.  So, all resolved to subdue this new threat, battle preparations began anew in the busy computer room and continued late into the afternoon when the number of students had dwindled.  

This wasn't simply any foe there were going up against.  It was their friend: the worst enemy they could possibly face…and probably the toughest of all.  

***

Gaia: Okay, guys, since we have a long way to go, we need to start a new running gag in these endnotes.   
G: Ah, come on!  What could we possibly do besides whine about how long or short the chapters are?   
Ken: *walks in wearing bandages* I need to have a talk with you, Gaia.   
Gaia: Ken! *huggles Ken*   
Ken: Ow, watch the injuries!   
Gaia: Oops, sorry. *lets go*  If you're looking for Yolei, she was in the last chapter.   
Ken: I didn't come here looking for her…*pulls out a briefcase* I'm here to sue.   
Gaia, G, and Gwen: WHAT?!?   
Ken: That's right.  Don't you remember what happened near the end of "Reflection"?   
Gaia: Erm…all I remember was running away from you when you'd turned into the Emperor…Then you suddenly disappeared….G?   
G:  Well, uh…heh heh…Gwen kinda tripped…   
Gwen: …And G kind of tripped over me…   
Ken: Which caused me to fall over them and get injured like this.  So, I'm suing you for this amount. *pulls out a handful of papers*   
Gaia: *reads over the papers* Your medical bills?   
Ken: Yep, feel lucky I don't sue you for more.   
Gaia: (sputtering) But…but…I can't afford this.   
Ken:  Well, see you in court then. *turns to leave*   
Gaia: Wait, wait, wait…if it's just your medical bills, why take it to court? *laughs nervously* It's so expensive for lawyers and all.   
Ken: Hmmm…you're right; you could always just pay them without going through all the hassle, but you said—   
Gaia: *pats his back quickly* Don't worry. I'm sure my muses will help me since it's all their fault.  (to muses, sternly) Right?   
G and Gwen: *nod*   
Ken: Good.  I expect the money by next week. Ta ta! *leaves*   
G: Why didn't you just take it to court?  We might have been able to get out of it!   
Gaia: Are you kidding?  Us going up against a child prodigy?   
Gwen: You have a point.   
Gaia: See?  Now hurry up and raise this money. *hands bills over to muses*   
Gwen: (grumbling) Looks like I'm taking up psychotherapy again. *leaves*   
G: Hey, what should I do then?   
Gaia: I don't know! Be a psychiatrist like Gwen, for all I care! *exits in a huff*   
G: Hmmm…not a bad idea. Heh heh heh… 


	8. First Strike

There's No Rest for the Wicked

Disclaimer: Now what the heck did I used to say in these things? (G: *thwacks Gaia* Baka! You've been putting off this story for way too long./ Gwen: Just say, "Digimon isn't mine," and nod.) Erm, OK. Digimon isn't mine. *nods*

Gaia: No, really, what _did_ I do for these things?

Gwen: You made a running gag which we've long forgotten, used this space to point out any past mistakes, thanked your reviewers…

G: That's what you get for not touching this fic in 10 years. *pause* Wait, you seriously didn't write anything for _10 years_? Do you even know how to write anymore?

Gaia: *thwacks G* It's more like 9 years, since I did a bit of this chapter after the last one was uploaded.

G: But still, what have you been doing all that time?

Gaia: Uh, finishing school for my BS and professional degree, running a fansubbing group, playing WoW, getting married, moving to another state, getting a job, buying a house, having a baby…

Gwen: Wait, what?

G: You have a kid now?

Gaia: I guess I shouldn't have put you guys in stasis all that time, huh?

G and Gwen: *face-vault*

Chapter 8 – First Strike

Davis rubbed his eyes with a yellow-gloved hand as a bit of sand flew into them for what had to be the gazillionth time. He finally yanked his goggles down over them like he should have done hours ago. The blazing sun beat down on him and his group of Digidestined, who lay in wait for the others to get ready in various parts of the Digital World.

"Argh!" Davis stood up in frustration and kicked the cliff side he had been leaning against. "How much longer do we have to hide behind this rock?"

Across from him, Yolei looked up from typing on her laptop and answered, "Just a few more minutes, Davis. Digidestined are still pouring in and getting into their positions."

Currently, there were five other groups of children besides them, ready to act on the battle plan they had come up with the other day. Tai took it upon himself to lead all the Digidestined from Asia; Matt took the children from South and Central America, while Mimi and Michael led the ones from North America; Joe decided to help Izzy lead the African and Australian Digidestined; and Sora was in charge of the European children.

In the meantime, Davis was the leader of a much smaller strike force that consisted of the rest of the original Digidestined, Noriko (one of the Dark Spore children), and Steve, whom they had met in America four years ago and who was visiting Japan at the moment.

"Now explain to me again why you don't think Ken's expecting us to attack his base. I mean, there aren't any Control Spires around for miles. He's a sitting duck," inquired Cody, turning to Yolei.

Mechanically the girl answered while still staring at the screen of the portable computer. "For the sixth time, once we launch our attack on his Control Spires, he'll think we're off helping the others. After all, only our digimon can armor digivolve in the presence of the spires, and besides, this isn't exactly the kind of place anyone would think of finding him."

"But still, that clue he gave us—"

"Let's go!" Yolei chimed, shutting the lid of her laptop. "Everyone's ready."

"All right!" Davis yelled and punched a fist in the air, which warranted him glares from the rest of the group. "Oh…sorry."

"Okay, guys—let's do this!" T.K. said in an enthusiastic whisper.

Everyone nodded. "Right."

Yolei held up her D-3. "Digidestined, let's rock!"

* * *

"So far, so good," Yolei whispered as she pulled her head back from around the corner. "Let's keep going."

After Nefertimon, ExVeemon and Aquilamon had transported the group to the base safely, they de-digivolved and followed the rest, hurrying into the base.

"Hey, I'm supposed to be the leader of this group!" Davis cried, which earned him shushes from everyone present. Tugging his goggles back up to their normal resting place on his head, he added more quietly to Yolei, "Who said you could give the orders to go?"

"Davis, this is serious; there's no time for playing 'Follow the Leader.'"

"But—" A harsh glare from the lavender-haired girl halted his whining. "Oh fine, go ahead and lead the mission to save your boyfriend," he pouted. The annoyance in Yolei's face intensified.

"Why Davis, if I didn't know better, I'd say you were jealous of Yolei's love for Ken," Kari joked.

"What—? I—!"

"Hey, cut it out, all of you, or else I'm taking over as leader," T.K. intervened. "Now let's keep moving before we're spotted." At that, he and the rest of the teenagers quietly hustled down the dim corridor.

"Hey, wait up for your leader!" Davis called in a barely contained whisper, jogging after them.

* * *

In the Western part of the Digital World…

"Dien!" Tai shouted down from Greymon's shoulder as the huge, orange digimon pulled up next to the Vietnamese boy squatting on the ground with the laptop. "Ask Matt how he's holding up on his end, will ya?"

A few clicks of the mouse and some tapping on the keyboard later, Dien responded, "He says they're doing surprisingly well." Then he added with a slight smirk, "Matt also says that he thinks he's knocked down more Control Spires than you have."

"Hah!" Tai was going to chuckle in amusement when he noticed a Flymon wearing a Dark Band coming straight for them. "Greymon, attack, but not too strong! We just want to stun him, not kill him."

"You got it," the dinosaur digimon growled. "Nova Blast!"

The large ball of fire hit the aerial digimon dead on, but the attack was restrained enough to simply knock him to the ground and out.

Seeing danger averted for the time being, Tai called to Dien, "Tell him we've managed to knock down about fifty-four. And then ask him how much he's knocked down." A small smile was creeping up on the Digidestined of Courage's face.

Grinning himself while shaking his head, Dien transmitted the message and received a reply within a few minutes. "Fifty-five from him."

"Yeah, right, he's probably just saying that," Tai scoffed. All the while, the brunette had been scanning the battleground before him. "On a more serious note, ask him if he's going to press the attack. It seems like Ken's forces are slowly pulling back."

Clickety-click went the keyboard. "He says yeah, they are, even though he has a bad feeling about the ease at which we're beating back the Emperor's forces." A beep from the laptop called Dien's attention back. "Izzy just announced to everyone that if they have the advantage, keep going. The more Control Spires knocked down, the better."

"Well, if Izzy says so…" Then inwardly, Tai thought, 'I hope he knows what he's doing. I think I'm with Matt on this one for once.'

After hurriedly thanking Dien, Tai moved to the center of his troops and gave the order to advance. Within minutes, five more Control Spires toppled, and the Emperor's banded forces were dropping like that Flymon.

'This just feels too easy.'

* * *

"Um, does anyone besides me have the feeling that—?"

"'—this is too easy,'" everyone in the small strike force chimed in and finished for the goggle-wearing boy.

Running alongside him, Cody remarked, "Davis, you've been asking that for the past five minutes, and the only reason why you have that feeling is because this _is _too easy. All we've run into so far are a couple of Vegiemon and Bakemon, and our digimon took care of them just fine."

By now, they had seen so few enemies that it was pointless for them to conceal their presence. Their only focus now was to get to the center of the base where the power generator most likely was.

As they rounded the next corner, they found two more Bakemon waiting for them in front of a large steel door.

"Halt!" the two ghost digimon called. "This is the power room. None may enter."

Cody blinked. "Okay, either Ken needs to invest in smarter digimon…"

Davis didn't wait for him to finish. "ExVeemon, get them!"

"V-Laser!" The markings on the champion-level digimon's chest lit up, and a beam of energy fired from them at both digimon guards, who were taken out with one pass, along with the metal door.

"Let's go, guys!" called the bearer of the Digieggs of Courage and Friendship and rushed headlong in to the enormous power room. The others followed suit.

However, as soon as all the teenagers and their digimon had entered the room, a thicker steel door slid into place where the old one once was, blocking their only known exit.

"…Or it's a trap," finished Cody.

All eyes turned to the brown-haired boy. "You could have told us earlier!" they shouted at him.

Before he could respond, a malicious laughter filled the room. Everyone turned their heads up and finally managed to get a better look at their lion's den.

There was no power source was in sight. The round, metal-plated room was as large and flat as an arena, and the walls were so high none of the teenagers could see the ceiling, if there were one in shadows overhead. The place was dimly lit with electric torches scattered around the room, so they could barely make out the platforms and dark doors that lined the walls stories above them.

Their attention was drawn to the lowest platform across from them where the laughter seemed to be resonating from.

"Ken!" all the Digidestined exclaimed.

"Close, but not quite," echoed out a familiar voice, which made everyone else stiffen. "I think some of you may have forgotten how to address me properly. It's been soooo looong," the smooth voice drawled out melodically.

Out from the shadows of the aformentioned platform came a tall figure, two-pronged cape billowing out behind him.

"The only other name you're getting from us is 'Traitor!'" yelled Cody.

"Ah, ah, ah, also close, but not quite." The regally-dressed boy stepped forward in enough of the dim torchlight for all to see. He looked no different than he had on the beach, flat hair and all, much to Yolei's relief. "But for the courtesy of those who are new to this game," he said, gesturing to Steve and Noriko, "you may refer to me as the Digimon Emperor, or his Highness, Great One…"

"Okay, we get it, you've said this all before," interrupted Yolei. "Now hurry up and fight us so I can get my boyfriend back."

The frown on the Digimon Emperor's face was visible, even in this lighting. "Fine, as you wish." With a snap of his fingers, an army of digimon filed in from a doorway below him. Among the controlled digimon were Bakemon, Veggiemon, Dark Tyrannomon and Gazimon, to name a few.

"Let's go, guys!" chimed Yolei, holding up her D-3.

"Hawkmon digivolve to… Aquilamon!"

Noriko and Steve followed suit.

"SnowAgumon digivolve to… Frigimon!"

"Elecmon digivolve to… Centarumon!"

Facing the oncoming army of the Emperor, the digimon formed a protective circle around the Digidestined. They were horribly outnumbered but that didn't mean they were going to give up without a fight.

The controlled digimon stopped their approach when their leader held up a hand, however. "One moment. I want to see their faces for this one." With that, he gracefully leapt off the platform and landed on a passing Airdramon.

As he flew over, screens on the walls around the Digidestined lit up. What played out on them were the various battles taking place around the Digital World with his armies. Control Spire after Control Spire fell, but he didn't seem to mind. In fact, he seemed to be smiling at a joke only he knew.

Hopping off his controlled digimon in a spot just outside their little circle, he finally broke his silence to let them in on the joke. "You all have front row seats to the unveiling of my latest invention: the Control Towers."

The screens shifted to where Control Spires once stood. In their place shot up similar-looking obelisks made of the same dark material, only this time they were hollow and had a lattice structure like a radio tower.

"These new Control Towers block armor digivolution, so even if you had joined your meddlesome friends, you would have been useless. But that's not all," he said in an singsong voice, wagging a finger in front of them. "They also prevent digivolving of any kind, even de-digivolving." Just as he said this last part, all screens switched to a fallen Monzaemon who was being engulfed by a bright light.

"Naturally, higher-level digimon de-digivolve when they've lost too much energy, but if you take away that ability…" Instead of the teddy bear-like digimon shrinking to its rookie or in-training form, it merely shattered into bits of data.

The Digidestined gasped in horror.

"Their data cannot stabilize into a final, lower energy form, ultimately destroying the digimon in the process." He beamed at his creation. "So I wonder, how many of your advanced digimon friends are going to help me test them."

With another snap of his fingers, the screens shifted back to show waves of reinforcements coming to join his armies. Two screens in particular diverted the teenagers' attention.

"Gatomon!" Kari suddenly cried and collapsed to her knees in horror. The familiar champion-level digimon wore a Dark Band and led the attack on Tai's group.

"No, Angemon!" yelled T.K. His banded digimon appeared at the head of the army marching on Matt's forces. The anger welled up inside the Digidestined of Hope. With a guttural cry, he lunged towards the Digimon Emperor. It took both Davis and Yolei to hold him back.

"Hold it there, T.J.," Davis said as he grabbed the Digidestined of Hope's arms and pinned them behind his back. "I want to take him down as bad as you, but you're gonna get yourself killed."

"He's right," chimed in Yolei, pressing against the blond boy's chest. She glared at the smirking Emperor from over her shoulder. "This is just the kind of reaction he wants to get from you."

The indigo-haired boy let out an evil laugh that eerily echoed throughout the gigantic chamber. "I see you're thrilled about my little surprise. It wasn't easy forcing a digivolution along the vaccine line. But now you get the pleasure of watching your beloved friends fight each other to the death." He flashed a smug grin. "Just call it an early Christmas present."

Yolei couldn't stand this guy possessing her boyfriend's body any longer. "I'll give you an early present!" She quickly turned around and closed the gap between her and the surprised Digimon Emperor. Before he could lay a hand on the whip at his side, she landed a fist solidly into the dictator's left cheek.

While the Digimon Emperor reeled back more in shock than because of the force of the blow, a banded Flymon swooped down out of seemingly nowhere and grabbed Yolei. It then flew to one of the platforms high above them, all the while with the lavender-haired girl screaming and flailing in its grip. Almost instantly, the rest of the banded digimon started their attacks on the Digidestined too.

As the Emperor rubbed his cheek, he growled up to his controlled champion-level digimon, "Flymon, take her away to some secluded part of this base… and kill her!" No sooner had he issued the command than he clutched at his flat hair and a different voice screamed, "Wait! Don't!"

At this, all the Emperor's digimon in the arena froze in place. The Digidestined's digimon took this opportunity to knock away a few of the minions that were poised to strike at them.

With another howl, he grabbed his forehead in his hand and stumbled to the nearest exit. "No," he seethed. "No, attack them, kill them all." At that, the battle resumed.

"Yolei!" Aquilamon tried to fly up after the disappearing girl, but each time he tried to get away, a red-eyed digimon would intercept him and keep him down in the fray.

"He's getting away!" yelled T.K., looking on angrily as the figure of the Emperor retreated behind lines and lines of controlled digimon.

Thinking quickly, Cody grabbed Yolei's laptop from her abandoned pack and shoved it at T.K. "There's nothing you can do about that now," he assured his DNA-digivolving partner. "Here, warn Tai and the others about the Control Towers. We'll handle these guys." With that, he rushed off to go join Ankylomon.

Still angry yet in shock, T.K. stared at the white laptop. This was all happening to him so fast. Not only was his partner Digimon half a world away fighting against his older brother, but now all he could do while his friends were fighting was play messenger boy.

He looked up at the others while opening the laptop and starting the mail program. Kari was crying against Noriko's shoulder not far from him. He guessed he had forgotten he wasn't the only one going through all this. "Don't worry, Angemon, I'll get you back no matter what it takes," he determinedly whispered to himself, hurriedly typing an e-mail to everyone.

* * *

Gaia: I guess I forgot to mention, even though I'm anti-dub now I'm keeping the dub names for the sake of consistency of this fic.

G: Easy for you to say, you're not the one back-translating some of these digimon.

Gwen: Or checking that we're being consistent this time. By the way, you wrote Mephistomon as his Japanese name of Mephismon a few chapters back.

Gaia: That was 10 years ago! Just sweep it under the rug with all those other dead bodies.

G and Gwen: Dead bodies? O_O


	9. Game Changer

There's No Rest for the Wicked

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon; I've said that over 9,000 times. (G: Oh God, no internet memes please.)

Chapter 9 - Game Changer

Tai had no idea what was going on. First, some new kind of Control Spires popped out of the ground like a bunch of daisies, and now digimon on both sides were falling over, disintegrating. Whatever the Emperor had done, it was turning out really badly for them.

He clenched a fist tightly and grit his teeth. The brunette leader hated to retreat when just moments ago they had a clear advantage. Suddenly something off to the side caught his attention. Still holding onto Greymon, he squinted in the direction of the setting sun. "That's—!"

"Cat Punch!" A red-eyed feline digimon took out an Elecmon with one blow from her gloved claws.

"Gatomon!" Tai gasped. A heavy knot formed in his stomach. There was no way he'd be able to bring himself to fight against his sister's digimon. This must've been the Digimon Emperor's plan all along.

"Tai, Tai!" A call from the ground below snapped him out of his thoughts. Dien stopped right next to Greymon's foot, panting from running over. "There's an email from T. K. He says, 'New Control Towers block digivolving or de-digivolving. Get out before your digimon run out of energy and break up from instability.'"

That settled it for him. "Dien, sound the alert to retreat. We're going to have to regroup and figure out how to take down the Emperor's new weapons."

"You got it!" He gave a sharp whistle and almost instantly, a white simian digimon came barreling through the trees over to him. Gorillamon scooped the Vietnamese boy up in his arms and was about to run off when Tai called back.

"Wait, make sure Matt's retreating too, and send T. K. a message for me…"

* * *

A green insect digimon scuttled back and forth in his cage. He'd watched everything play out on the control room monitors and knew Ken, or should he say the Digimon Emperor, was on his way back here. He also knew he had to do something but couldn't figure out what he was able to do.

Soon enough, the aforementioned teenager stormed into the control room, one eye squeezed shut and a hand on the side of his head as if fighting a migraine.

"I won't let you harm Yolei," growled out the voice of Ken. This made Wormmon perk up.

"**That little tramp had it coming,"** shot the voice of the Emperor from the same mouth. **"You see how she turned on you, just like before."**

"She had a right to be angry. Thousands of digimon are dying out there as we speak. You're hurting our friends."

Another howl of pain came from the indigo-haired boy. His black gloves and navy blue cape started to dissolve.

"You can do it, Ken! I know you can," cheered Wormmon. "You're still the kind and gentle boy deep down, the one who saved both our worlds."

"**Don't listen to him!"** barked out the Emperor. **"You are pure evil. Look at what we've done in such a short amount of time. We are more powerful than before. We will rule the Digital World once and for all!"**

"No, I'll never let that happen," Ken cut him off. "You have to be stopped! I won't let anyone else suffer because of me."

As the lanky teenager clutched at his hair with both hands, the dark D-3 hanging on his side emitted a purple glow.

"Please, Wormmon, save Yolei… I love her."

On the other side of the room, the little green digimon felt a familiar energy surging through him.

"Wormmon digivolve to… Stingmon!"

The tiny cage he was being held in was no match for the digivolution.

Quick as an arrow, Stingmon darted over to his partner's side. "Ken, what about you?"

"Just go!" Ken ordered. "Don't worry about me. I'll take care of him, but that Flymon is liable to kill her even without being controlled. Please, Stingmon." He grimaced. "Before it's too late."

"I'll be back for you, I promise, Ken." With that, the tall, insect digimon took off through the control room's exit.

"**You really shouldn't have done that, Kenny boy,"** taunted the voice of the Emperor. **"Because now it's just you, and me."**

* * *

They just kept coming. Waves and waves of red-eyed digimon. Even Davis was starting to get worn out. He knew poor Aquilamon was trying to find any kind of opening to save his partner, but it was no use.

"Davis," called T. K., dodging another fallen digimon and running up to the goggle-headed boy with the laptop. "Tai's telling us we need to get out of here. He's already pulling back everyone elsewhere. What should we do? We can't just let the Emperor win like this."

"I hear you. Yolei may be annoying but she's also my best friend's girl. I'm not leaving without her." The goggle-headed teenager clenched his teeth in determination.

"Are you guys crazy?" Steve backed up right beside them, keeping his eye on Frigimon, just in case any digimon tried to get the jump on him. "There's no way we can keep this up. We have to get out of here."

A beep came from the laptop. T. K. read the email just sent in to them, "'Davis, I know it's hard to leave a friend behind, especially one who's in trouble, but for the greater good, you have to let him go and regroup so that we can make a better plan.' He must be talking about Ken, because I didn't tell them about Yolei yet."

Davis let out a frustrated growl.

"You should listen to him," came another voice from behind him. Davis turned to see Noriko walking up with Kari in tow. "All our digimon are at their limits. It'd be suicide to stick around."

"I hate to say it," started Cody, also joining the group. "But our chances of survival grow slimmer every minute we stay here. I don't want to leave Yolei any more than you do, but for her sake, we need to get out and find a way to stop the Emperor."

"No!" Davis yelled firmly. "There's got to be a way, I know there is. I let down my friend once already; I wasn't there to stop him from becoming this monster. I refuse to let him down again by running away while the person he cares about most gets killed." The D-3 he clenched in his hand started to glow.

"Davis…" Kari breathed.

"It's all of us or nothing. For Ken's sake, I'll face any odds to save Yolei, even if I'm outmatched a million to one!" With that, a white light shot out from Davis' D-3 and headed straight to ExVeemon.

"ExVeemon digivolve to… AeroVeedramon!"

Everyone's jaws dropped to the floor. Before them stood an even bigger blue dragon digimon with red wings and monstrous white claws.

"That's my…" gasped Davis. A soft glow radiating from his body, AeroVeedramon flashed his partner a toothy grin, confirming his thoughts. Davis' surprised look disappeared and was replaced with an exuberant one. He punched a victorious fist in the air. "My ultimate!" After giving the group a quick nod, the new digimon took to the air.

"V-Wing Blade!" A beam of energy in the shape of a V formed from each wingtip, with its apex on the horn at the end of his nose. It then shot out and hit the Dark Bands on two adjacent digimon. The bands shattered, and the freed digimon looked around confused.

"That's…" started Cody. "But we tried everything we could to break those bands off, and we didn't even make a scratch."

"I guess our attacks weren't strong enough," stated T. K. "Maybe only the power of an ultimate or higher can break them."

"Go, AeroVeedramon, get them!" Davis cheered. His partner proceeded to destroy the Dark Bands on as many of the digimon as he could.

T. K. took the opportunity to grab the attention of all the liberated digimon. "Everyone, I know you must be wondering how you got here. But the Digimon Emperor is back and has been enslaving you. Help us fight him and take him out once and for all!"

The digimon's confused looks disappeared and were replaced with cries of support. Instantly, they turned on their red-eyed counterparts and helped keep them at bay while AeroVeedramon set more of them free.

Davis turned back to the rest of the Digidestined with renewed hope. "Now, to go save Yolei!"

* * *

The Flymon had taken the teenage girl through corridor after corridor, going up higher and higher when it could.

Finally, they flew into what looked like a huge storage room. Crates of who knows what were scattered all over the place in uneven towers. The Flymon dropped the lavender-haired girl roughly in an open area and flew past her, looping back to face her with its stinger poised.

Yolei took the hint. As soon as she landed on the ground, she started running away from the digimon, looking for any hiding spots or openings in the mounds of crates.

"Deadly Sting!" A poisonous spike hit the spot where she previously stood. The Flymon simply regenerated a new stinger and flew after her.

Yolei screamed and ducked behind a stack of boxes just as the Flymon made another attack. She shoved the stack forward in hopes of one of them hitting the digimon, but to no avail. She had to keep moving between rows as her pursuer followed, knocking crates aside as if they were leaves in the wind.

"Come on, can't we talk about this?" she shouted. All she received in response was another Deadly Sting that landed to her right.

After what seemed like an eternity of running through this labyrinth, she whipped around the corner of another set of crates, only to find herself in a dead end. The containers were stacked in the form of a wall on all three sides of the area she ran into. Yolei ran to the farthest wall she could, trying to find some kind of opening, any kind.

The hum of the Flymon's wings sounded deafening as it hovered over, ready to make one final strike in her direction. Yolei cringed and closed her eyes, certain that this was the end for her.

"Spiking Strike!"

Everything fell silent. Yolei opened her eyes and turned her head to see a familiar digimon tossing a skewered Flymon to the side.

"Stingmon!" cried Yolei, tears of happiness starting to roll down her cheek. The olive-colored digimon flew over and scooped her up in his arms.

"Let's get you out of here."

* * *

Meanwhile, the half Emperor sat hunched over in the middle of his control room, the battle in his mind raging on.

"**No, go back to the little hole I stuck you in,"** hissed the voice of the Emperor. **"You're ruining everything."**

The monitors nearby flashed, showing the battles going on around the Digital World. The Digidestined were retreating all right but some of the banded digimon pursuing them stopped. Their red eyes flickered for the briefest of moments.

"No, you go back to the hole you crawled out of," retorted Ken. "I won't let you hurt my friends any longer."

"**I highly doubt they're your friends anymore."**

One of the screens showed Tai as he urged his army to fall back. "Curse you, Digimon Emperor," he muttered, taking one last look at Gatomon. "You'll pay for what you did to everyone, especially to Kari."

"**Do you think they'll forgive you after this? That they'll forget? They won't trust you anymore. They all hate you."**

Another screen shifted to Matt fleeing from a banded Angemon. "Ichijouji's a dead man when we see him next."

"**He doesn't mean that, he's angry,"** defended Ken. ** "I would feel the same way."**

Yet another screen cut to the Digidestined trapped in the base. "…I'll face any odds to save Yolei, even if I'm outmatched a million to one!"

"Davis?" Ken looked up and watched as ExVeemon went ultimate after his friend's declaration.

"**Interesting indeed…" **pondered the Emperor. **"It seems like your best friend has feelings for your slut of a girlfriend."**

"No, I know what you're thinking, but it's not like that between them," asserted the Digidestined of Kindness.

"**Sure… And it seems like he doesn't need you anymore. He can make his partner go ultimate without the help of anyone else, not like you and your little worm. Speaking of which…" ** He mentally called two more Flymon into the room. **"Go find Stingmon. Destroy him and that pesky Digidestined."**

Before Ken could take over long enough to stop them, the Emperor continued his prodding.

"**Oh, I sense it in you now, Kenny boy. I told you jealousy could take on many kinds of forms. Jealous of your best friend? By the end of this, he'll have both your girl and a more powerful digimon. Neither of them need you anymore. Who could ever want a person who tried to kill them?"**

"No, it's not possible."

The scene still played out before them. "Now, to go save Yolei!" Davis shouted.

"**See? That's all he can think about, not you, not saving their own hides, but her,"** the Emperor egged on. **"Did you ever stop to think about the little charade they put on for you, acting like they don't like each other? I'm sure they secretly get together every time she had to 'watch over the store.' But you trust her too much and never check up on her. How do you know that's what she's really doing? You've been duped, Ken."**

"No, she loves me, she would never do that." His voice wavered for merely a nanosecond, but that was all his dark side needed to confirm he was starting to get to him.

"**It's true, isn't it? You've never really seen them when you're not around. Now that you're out of the picture, all the Goggle-head can think about is rescuing your girl for himself."**

"You're lying!"

The Emperor cackled. **"That's it, let your anger make me stronger." ** The gloves and cape reappeared on the indigo-haired teenager He picked himself up from the floor and sat down in front of his monitors. ** "Now be a good boy and shut up while I finish off your two-timing ex-girlfriend."**

* * *

As the insectoid digimon sped down a corridor with Yolei, a green light surrounded him, and he began to have a sinking feeling.

"Stingmon, what's wrong?" Yolei looked up. He didn't have time to respond before he de-digivolved, and both of them fell to the floor. The lavender-haired girl picked herself up slowly and went to go check on Wormmon. "Oh no, that must mean… Ken!"

Wormmon climbed into Yolei's waiting arms. "I'm sure he held out as long as he could. But I still need to get you out of here."

No sooner had he said that than a familiar hum of wings came from further down the corridor.

"I think the shoe is on the other foot now." With that, she took off in the opposite direction the sound was coming from.

It wasn't long before the two banded Flymon were on her heels.

"Deadly Sting!"

"Poison Powder!"

Yolei just barely managed to outrun both attacks, but she was quickly getting worn out, especially after having done this same thing just recently.

Suddenly, a loud crash rang out from behind her. She turned just in time to see a giant turquoise digimon smash through the wall beside the two Flymon. Yolei put up an arm to shield the both of them from the resultant flying debris.

"V-Wing Blade!"

A blast of energy from the new digimon shattered the Flymon's Dark Bands, freeing the two enslaved digimon.

"What in the world…?" started the teenage girl.

"Yolei! Are you okay?" came a familiar voice behind the digimon who saved her.

"Davis?" she asked incredulously and sprinted up to the goggle-wearing boy. "Thank goodness it's you." Just as she neared him, she tripped over a piece of rubble, sending Wormmon flying. AeroVeedramon was quick to lay a claw down and catch the little digimon while Davis caught the tired girl in a hug before she hit the ground.

He helped her straighten back up to a standing position before she said, "I don't think I've ever been so glad to see you in my life." Then she pointed to the digimon next to him. "What's going on? Who's this?"

"Oh, ExVeemon went ultimate back there. This is AeroVeedramon now," he introduced.

AeroVeedramon flexed and struck a pose.

"Hey, any of you guys wanna explain what happened?" They turned to see the two Flymon hovering beside them.

"Oh, uh, the Digimon Emperor was controlling you with his new toy and ordered you to kill me, that's all," explained Yolei. "I'd get out of here if I were you before he finds out you aren't his slaves anymore."

"I'll say, wow, he's back? Uh, where is the way out of here anyway?"

"Leave that to me!" AeroVeedramon declared. After letting Wormmon down, he aimed a glowing fist at the opposite wall towards the ceiling. "Magnum Crush!" The impact created a tunnel up to the surface. They could see the dim light of dusk creeping through the opening.

"Thanks, buddy!" Both Flymon said as they made their way out.

Davis turned back to the clearly exhausted girl. "Hey, you sure you're all right?"

Yolei paused a moment. "Actually, I don't think I ever said I was."

"Oh…" Davis scratched the back of his head.

Just now noticing something, Yolei asked, "Wait, where are the others?"

Davis scratched the back of his head. "Er, I guess we were smashing through walls so fast, they must still be catching up."

As if to reaffirm his statement, they heard their friends calling from the hole AeroVeedramon had created.

"Davis, did you find her?" Aquilamon swooped in, carrying Kari and T. K. on his back. His eagle eyes lit up when he spied his partner. "Yolei! Are you all right? I was so worried." The avian digimon landed next to her and received a big hug.

"I'm fine now, thanks to Davis," Yolei replied.

This made T. K. and Kari raise their eyebrows. "Yolei thanking Davis?" T. K. joked half-heartedly. "You sure you didn't hit your head?"

Yolei shot him a glare and simply brushed it off. She peered back down the way they just came. "What happened to Cody, Noriko, and Steve?"

It was Kari's turn to answer. "They're helping the freed digimon escape. We weren't sure where we'd end up by tracking you with the D-3." She slid off Aquilamon's back so that she could give her friend a hug. "I'm so relieved you're all right."

"I could say the same for you after everything that's happened." Yolei hugged her back too. She then solemnly turned from Kari to the rest of her friends. "What happened to Ken?"

Everyone looked down, unsure what to tell her. Eventually the small insect digimon crawling up beside her spoke. "He was still struggling with his dark side when I left him. Ken was able to make me digivolve long enough to save you, but when I de-digivolved…"

"Ken's dark side must have won," Davis gravely finished for him. After a moment, he declared, "I want to go after him."

"What?" Everyone around him gasped. T. K. put a hand on his shoulder. "No, it's too dangerous. We need to regroup with the others and plan another attack."

"But he might still be vulnerable. This is as good of a chance as any to go after him," Davis shot back.

"If you're going, then I'm going too," the lavender-haired girl added.

Kari looked her over and said worriedly, "Yolei, I don't think you can go on any longer. We need to get you out of here."

"You guys go on ahead. If Davis wants to stand a chance of bringing Ken back, he's going to need me," Yolei declared confidently.

Her avian digimon puffed out his feathers. "Then I'm coming too," stated Aquilamon.

"And me!" chirped Wormmon, sitting up on his back three segments.

Yolei held up a hand in front of all of them. "No," she interjected. "Aquilamon, you need to get them out of here. Wormmon, we can't risk you getting captured again. He'd beat you to death for sure."

"But Ken—!"

"Don't worry, Wormmon, I'll bring him back like I did before," she assured.

Kari put a hand on her shoulder. "If things get hairy, promise me you'll get out of here. I know we'll just slow you guys down if we stick around."

"I will." Yolei put a hand over Kari's as well. "Now get going, we'll be fine."

Kari scooped Wormmon up and climbed back on Aquilamon, who had lowered himself for her.

"Good luck, you three!" With that, Aquilamon took off through the exit AeroVeedramon had made for the Flymon.

"I think we'll need it," Yolei gulped.

* * *

"**Well, well, well. Looks like someone's coming back for more."** The Digimon Emperor swiveled away from his monitors, which showed AeroVeedramon battling his way to the control room. One of them must've locked onto his location when Ken had broken through momentarily. No matter, they would make excellent fodder for the Emperor's complete take over.

He ran a gloved hand through his flat hair. Soon, he'd be able to redouble his efforts to take over the Digital World and destroy those meddlesome Digidestined one by one. But first, he thought he would have a little fun at Ken's expense.

The Emperor rose from his chair just in time for his two foes to burst in with their overgrown pet. He was ready for them though, as he mentally called forth an Okuwamon to charge at AeroVeedramon. It wasn't long before the beetle-like digimon locked himself in a test of strength with the other digimon.

Turning toward the two humans, he plastered a fake grin on his face. **"Ah, my friends have come to pay me a visit. How sweet!"** His voice dripped with sarcasm at the end.

"The jig's up, Emperor, hand Ken over!" Yolei barked, pointing a white-gloved finger at him.

"**Oh, if you insist…"** With that, his body went limp for a moment, and his icy eyes were replaced with wide indigo ones. He swayed unsteadily, putting a hand up to his head before he caught sight of a familiar face. "Yo-Yolei… Is that really you?"

The girl could recognize the voice of her boyfriend anywhere. "Ken!" she called and rushed towards him.

"Yolei, wait, it could be a trick!" Davis reached an arm out to stop her but was too late. She easily closed the distance between the two of them.

The regally-clad boy grasped her hands in his. For a moment, relief washed over him seeing the love of his life safe and sound. However, a shadow seemed to cross his face, and his eyes grew even wider. "Yolei, get out," he whispered.

"What? Why?"

"Just go, now, before he—" His arm seemingly out of its own volition shot up to the back of her neck. In one swift move he pinched a specific pressure point, and the girl crumpled to the floor.

"NO!" Davis shot forward, sliding down once he got closer to the teenage girl, and cradled her in his arms.

* * *

In the meantime, AeroVeedramon glanced over Okuwamon's shoulder and caught a glimpse of Yolei collapsing at the Emperor's feet. That settled it, he was checking them out of this crazy house.

He pushed his opponent away and followed with a V-Wing Blade. This knocked Okuwamon into a freshly-formed crevice in the wall of the control room. Ignoring the falling chunks of rock from the cracked ceiling above, the turquoise digimon prepared to fly over and retrieve his two human friends.

Suddenly, he felt a pincher clamp down hard on his arm. Turning his head, he found himself face-to-face with the ugly mug he'd pounded into the wall a few seconds ago. The insectoid digimon had recovered quicker than he expected.

A blow to his horned head reminded AeroVeedramon that this wasn't an ordinary lackey of the Emperor's. Okuwamon was an ultimate-level digimon as well, faster and more power than the enemies he had faced so far.

"Double Scissor Claw!"

AeroVeedramon just barely managed to dodge the slicing attack from Okuwamon's mandibles. He hoped Davis could hold out a little longer; he had a feeling he was going to be busy.

* * *

The indigo-haired boy took a few steps back in shock. "What did I—?" His bewildered question was cut off by maniacal laughter coming from the same mouth.

Davis checked Yolei's pulse. Her heart was still beating, and it sounded like she was breathing slowly, as if she were asleep. "You monster, what did you do to her?" he demanded between clenched teeth.

"**Relax, Motomiya, she's merely unconscious." **The Emperor was clearly in control once more. **"I didn't want to be subjected to her incessant babble again."** He slowly began circling the two of them.

The goggle-wearing boy looked up at him defiantly. "What are you up to?"

The Emperor held up both hands in feigned innocence. **"I just want what you came here for—a little talk. Only between you and me, not her."**

"Fine then, let's talk." He laid her head down gently on the hard, black floor and stood up, not letting his eyes off his stalker.

"**Tell me, Motomiya, how would you classify your relationship with this… girl?"**

"Huh?" Davis paused for a moment. He realized he was dense, but even he knew the answer to that. "We're friends of course."

"**Would you say you liked her more than just as a friend?"**

"Well, yeah, because she's your—"

"**Would you be willing to lay down your life for her?"** The Emperor pressed on, purposely cutting him off.

"Of course. I'd do that for an—"

"**Would you fight anyone for her?"**

"Yes, shut up and stop interrupting me before I knock your brains out!" Both of Davis' fists were up in front of him for emphasis. "I know you're trying to play some kind of game, but it isn't going to work."

The Emperor stopped and turned to face him. ** "You wouldn't even let her dear boyfriend put her out of her misery? The poor thing must be suffering to see her precious Ken like this. It'll be a quick strangulation, I promise."** He took one step towards them.

The goggle-headed teenager was too blinded by his emotions to notice the other boy's pupils dilate. "You stay away from her! I would rather die than let you lay a hand on her."

"Davis…" A confused Ken trailed off as he saw Yolei lying on the ground not far from him. The last thing he could remember was his dark side interrogating Davis about his feelings for her. That's right, then his best friend had confessed he did care for her… Ken shook his head. There were a few black-outs up till Davis' current declaration. At the moment, he didn't have time to figure out what his dark side was doing to him, nor to dwell on if Davis' revelation was just another illusion.

All he could think about was checking if Yolei were alive, before he lost control again. He tried to brush past the goggle-wearing teenager but was met with a firm hand to his chest.

"I told you, you're not getting near her," Davis hissed.

Ken knocked the other boy's hand aside. "Out of my way, I have to—" He never finished as his friend landed a fist across his right cheek.

Shocked, Ken stumbled backwards.

"I'm not going to let you hurt her, not ever again!"

"Davis… you really feel this strongly for her?" Ken weakly put a hand up to his face. This was definitely no illusion. He could feel the area throb and start to swell. The pain in his cheek couldn't compare to the one in his heart though.

"Of course I do, you scumbag. But what do you care?"

"So he was right…" Ken muttered more to himself. "You and her, all this time…" Then to Davis, he snapped, "If you really cared, you'd at least let me make sure she's all right."

"Hah, I'm not going to fall for that!" Davis wagged a finger at him. "See, I know this is a trick because you already told me she was alive. I'm not as dumb as everyone thinks I am!"

"What are you talking about? Never mind, I don't think I want to know." He again tried to walk over to her, but Davis grabbed his arm.

"How many times do I have to tell you? You're not getting anywhere near her."

Ken wretched his arm away and shoved his friend aside. "Just try to stop me."

No sooner had he said that than the other teenager tackled him to the ground. Without hesitation, Ken landed a blow to the side of his head and tried to scramble away towards Yolei. Davis quickly recovered and jumped onto Ken's back to pin him down. "So, we can do this the hard way or the easy way—the easy way being you back off and let me take Yolei far away from you."

Ken growled and threw him off. "And the hard way?"

At that moment, AeroVeedramon managed to land a clean shot at Okuwamon's Dark Band, freeing him. While the other digimon tried to figure out how he got there, AeroVeedramon flew over and scooped both Davis and the unconscious Yolei up in one giant claw.

Ken clenched his teeth at the sight of the ultimate-level digimon. "This isn't over between us, Davis."

"I could say the same to you, _Emperor_," Davis added mockingly. "Let's get out of here, AeroVeedramon."

Without another word, the giant dragon digimon took off down the corridor towards the exit he'd made earlier. Not knowing where else to go, the Okuwamon followed them in hopes of finding a way out. Meanwhile, Davis cradled Yolei in his arms and propped her up so that her head was leaning against his chest.

He grimaced at the battered girl. She didn't deserve to be put through all this. Even though he figured she couldn't hear him, he still whispered to her, "Don't worry, Yolei, I'll make sure the Emperor doesn't hurt you again like this, I promise. We'll get him back for you." How they were going to get Ken back from the Emperor was another question, one that was going to take a lot of people to answer.

* * *

Ken could hear the Digimon Emperor coming back to taunt him again. **"Oh this is rich. Your relationship of how long, four years? And this is what you have to show for it. Your girlfriend being ripped away from you by your best friend."**

He could feel Ken's despair growing. The Digidestined of Kindness didn't want to believe it, but it happened right before his eyes. He could still feel his cheek throbbing.

"_Don't worry, Yolei, I'll make sure the Emperor doesn't hurt you again like this, I promise. We'll get him back for you." _ Ken stiffened, hearing those words. All of the screens behind him were playing footage of Davis escaping with Yolei down the halls.

'Davis, even you turned against me… All over her…'

He made their body turn around to look at her unconscious face—pale, peaceful, beautiful. What he would give to run his hand across her soft cheek, to see her warm smile once more. Just gazing upon her sparked something within him, a new determination.

His own face hardened. 'No, he can't have her. I won't let him have her!' He didn't know who or what to trust anymore, except that he still had feelings for her.

His dark side could feel him teetering over the edge. The Emperor decided to change tactics slightly. After all, he just needed one more push. ** "You don't have to let him get away with this, Ken,"** he soothed. **"Stick with me, and I'll give you the power to take down anyone that stands between you and her. Think of it, you can rule the Digital World, make it a harmonious place with her at your side. There won't be anyone to stop you, no one to take her away from you."**

"I… No, she's been hurt because of you. I can't trust you with her either."

"**I saved her from Daemon, didn't I? Look, if she means that much to you, and keeping the peace between us, I won't harm a hair on her head next time, I swear. Do you think after everything we've done that anyone's going to let you near her? This is the only way you two can be together now."**

Images of Davis hitting him, along with ones of him holding her in his arms, flashed before him.

"**So what's it going to be, Ken? Him or you?"**

Ken took a deep breath. He suddenly felt the gravity of the choice he had to make. On the one hand, he could keep fighting his dark side, but for what? To lose the only girl he loved to a backstabbing friend? On the other, he could finally come to terms with his other half, using him to win her back.

With bitterness in his voice, Ken made his decision. "Me."

* * *

G: Hey wait, didn't your writing used to be…I don't know more thorough? More descriptive?

Gwen: She has a point, you kind of just glossed over the AeroVeedramon and Okuwamon fight in that last part.

Gaia: Shut up, this is my first solo chapter since I started writing again. Besides, I think everyone was more interested in Ken-chan anyway.

Ken: Did someone call? *walks into the room*

G: Hey wait, where are your bandages? Weren't you going to sue us a few chapters ago?

Ken: *scoffs* That was almost 10 years ago. I've healed up since then, no thanks to you guys. I still plan on suing you with interest now that you brought that up.

Gaia: *face-palm* Here we go again.


	10. A Friendly Challenge

There's No Rest for the Wicked

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon, but if I did, I'd get it all subtitled in every language.

Gwen: Woohoo! We're on Chapter 10 now!

G: That brings our rate of writing up to one chapter per year, right?

Gaia: Shut up.

A/N: Sorry about the delay in this one. I was tied up with making sure the 10th anniversary releases for WPP went smoothly, so this got put on the backburner. On the bright side, I finally got to sub the 23rd episode of Adventure 02. *flex* Thanks to everyone who's still reading and reviewing (especially you, cstini, for your encouraging words last chapter.)

Chapter 10 - A Friendly Challenge

Yolei's body ached all over, especially her legs. She rolled over in her bed as she woke up, taking the last of the blanket with her and leaving Poromon shivering in his sleep. Wait, her bed? She sifted through the fog of her mind. The last she remembered was confronting Ken in his base. Davis and she had…

That's right, when she came to, she was in the school's first aid station, where one late-staying nurse was checking her vitals. After Yolei had been diagnosed with mild heat exhaustion and given some water, she was sent home with a somber Cody and their digimon.

He had filled her in on the aftermath of the battles. In total, 10,693 digimon had lost their lives, on both sides. All the humans had managed to escape with no serious injuries, fortunately. Izzy had a heck of a time calming everyone down and collecting all the information he could. Sora, Mimi, and Joe, among others, had been helping a number of Digidestined cope with the outcome, especially if they had lost a digimon in the process.

The younger boy hadn't heard much from T. K. or Kari but he assumed they were with their older brothers, trying to console each other. Davis had stayed with her up until Cody found them at the first aid station and relieved him. Wormmon was going to stay with Davis for the night until they could bring him back to Ken's place.

As for Ken, well, they had decided to meet up the next day after school to try and figure out a different way to approach him. Hopefully their allies in the Digital World could gather more intel and report back to them by that time.

Rubbing her eyes, she stumbled out of her bed and to the bathroom. She went through her usual morning routine, all the while thinking back to the events of the other day.

They had failed miserably. That was the bottom line. Who knows if Ken's dark side had gotten stronger or, she shuddered, taken him over completely.

"In today's news, the Digital World has been declared 'off-limits' to all children as the notorious Digimon Emperor…" Yolei shut off the the T.V., which immediately evoked exclamations of surprise from her family, and went to eat breakfast.

* * *

The computer lab seemed the busiest the lavender-haired teenager had ever seen it. Everyone must have been checking out the latest news about what had been dubbed "The War in the Digital World" or chatting with their friends about it.

"Hey, Yolei!" Davis waved her over to the corner they'd reserved. DemiVeemon and Upamon were chowing down under the table. Yolei let Poromon out of her bag to go join them.

"T. K. and Kari said they were running late," Cody added, reading through some email on his D-terminal.

Izzy was busy clicking away at his keyboard while talking with the other Digidestined over video chat.

"I still think we should all band together and storm Ken's base," Tai said frustratedly.

"And let me remind you there are now Control Towers in that area for a good ten kilometer radius," Izzy chided. "We'd be sacrificing quite a few digimon just gaining ground to get to him."

Matt gave a visible yawn. "It wasn't easy when we tried to take them down. I'd say it took maybe half a dozen champions or two ultimates focusing their fire. They're tougher than they look."

The sound of footsteps running up to them made the Digidestined turn their heads. "Sorry we're late," T. K. panted.

"It's my fault," said Kari, out of breath as well. "I left my D-terminal somewhere, and T. K. was helping me look for it."

"But, but, you could have asked me to help you too, Kari!" pouted Davis.

The Digidestined of Light sweatdropped. "T. K. just happened to be the first one I ran into. It's okay, though, someone had turned it in to my math teacher, so we found it there."

"So Davis," trying to steer the conversation back on track, Izzy turned to him. "You found that AeroVeedramon could break the Dark Bands?"

"We had a similar situation as we were falling back in our battle," Sora explained. "An Asuramon was helping us, and only it was able to break them. Everyone else had to rely on knocking out or wearing out the other digimon before the Control Towers sprung up."

"Same with the ultimates who joined us," added Joe. "I guess that means only ultimate-level digimon are strong enough against the Dark Bands?"

"But we can't keep relying on ultimates to fight these battles," insisted Matt.

A pink-haired teenager nodded in agreement. "He's right. They'll die the moment they run out of energy," said Mimi.

"It's quite the double-edged sword," commented Izzy. "Maybe if I further analyze these bands and towers I can find some kind of vulnerability, but until then, this is all we have to rely on."

"Hey, Tai, did I mention I have an ultimate now?" Davis closed one eye and shoved a thumbs up at the screen.

Tai sweatdropped. "Only a million times, Davis."

"I'm still wondering how that happened, especially without a tag and crest," pondered Joe.

"The only thing I can think of, from what you guys described to me," Izzy proposed, "is the D-3s combined with the Digieggs act like a surrogate tag and crest. So when Davis expressed both courage and friendship traits, it must have activated the higher digivolution. I would have to track Gennai down at some point to be sure—"

All of a sudden, the computer screen flickered and turned to static. The once calm babble of the computer room turned into an uproar seconds after, as every computer screen followed suit.

"Izzy, what'd you do? Break the whole lab?" Davis asked.

"I don't know what's going on, but it definitely wasn't me," Izzy brushed him off as he tapped on a few keys then checked the computer's cables. As he did so, all the computer monitors flickered back on, but instead of everyone's previous programs, it displayed the face of someone all too familiar to the Digidestined.

"Attention, insects," spoke the spiky-haired teenage boy on the screen, "I'll make this brief and to the point."

Cries of "Ken?" and "The Digimon Emperor?" were uttered among the group in the corner. Yolei's blood ran cold at the sight of their former enemy, fully reawakened.

"As you are aware, areas of the Digital World are quickly falling under my control. But out of the kindness of my tiny heart, I wish to propose a challenge—to a group of five Digidestined, and to them only."

"Then why the public spectacle?" Yolei muttered.

"To Davis Motomiya, Kari Kamiya, T. K. Takaishi, Cody Hida, and last but not least, the fair Yolei Inoue."

Yolei turned beet red. She was embarrassed yet furious at whatever game he was trying to play with her.

"I challenge you to a decisive battle between one of my ultimate-level digimon and one of yours. If you win, I'll immediately disable all Dark Bands and Control Towers. However, when _I_ win, you will halt your meddlesome resistance for 24 hours and let me conquer as much of the Digital World as I want."

"What? No way!" Davis shouted at the screen.

"If we let that happen, he's sure to take over the rest of the Digital World," added Izzy.

"If you accept my proposal," the Digimon Emperor continued, "meet me at the time and coordinates I'm sending to your D-terminals. If you decline, then there goes your one chance of ending this war."

All five of their devices beeped at once with the sound of new mail.

"Oh, and one more thing. Remember, this is just between you five, your digimon, and me," he emphasized sternly. "If anyone else comes near our little duel, these terms are void, and I will kill half of the digimon I currently control. I'll be seeing you soon." He ended his message coolly, and all the monitors flickered back to their original screens.

Most everyone in the computer room turned to stare at the teenagers who had been challenged. Famous as they had been for saving the Digital World and helping out new Digidestined, no one had paid them as much attention as now. The group tried to ignore the inquiring gazes as best they could and turned back to their screen of distressed older Digidestined.

"Did you guys see that? The Emperor just took over my screen," Mimi anxiously inquired.

"He was on mine too," piped up Joe.

Tai had just as shocked a look as any of them. "Did he just broadcast that worldwide?"

Izzy turned to the group of five humans. "I think he gave you guys no choice but to accept."

"Yeah, the public announcement pretty much sealed it," conceded Cody. "Not that we were thinking of declining but if we did, we would lose face in the eyes of everyone across the globe."

"But the only ultimate we have is AeroVeedramon," Yolei mulled, "with Gatomon and Patamon still under his control…"

"Something about this doesn't feel right. It's got to be some sort of trap," Matt said from the computer.

"They have no choice though," argued Tai, "and this may be our only shot at slowing down the Emperor, if he actually follows through."

"Just be careful. Remember, we're only a call away if you need backup," Sora offered.

Yolei looked at Upamon and Poromon, who had passed out next to DemiVeemon from the snacking and missed the whole thing. "At least we'll be able to bring our other digimon along, so hopefully that'll be enough." She then turned to Kari standing across from her. "You and T. K. don't have to go if you don't want to."

The brunette knew what she was getting at. With their digimon still captured, they'd be useless or even a hindrance to them. Still, she shook her head. "We're coming with you. After all, we're on his list too."

"She's right. The more the merrier—isn't that how it goes?" T. K. chimed in.

A frown creased Matt's face. "I don't think it's a good idea, but I'm too far away to stop you, little brother. Just be careful."

"Uh, guys," Cody said as he held up his open D-terminal. "We'd better get moving. This says to meet him in one hour."

After exclamations of surprise all around, Izzy attempted to calm them down and get them organized. "Okay, everyone else assemble as many of your group that are available in the Digital World. Don't try to take back any areas just yet, but stand by in case these guys need help." He started plugging in the coordinates from Cody's D-terminal on his map of the Digital World. "Tai, your group is the nearest to this location. Don't go anywhere within 50 kilometers of it just in case, but be ready if they need a speedy evacuation."

"Gotcha." The former leader of the Digidestined affirmed.

"If that's it, then we gotta hustle." Before anyone could say anything else, Davis hit the shortcut for the DigiPort program on the computer, grabbed the snoozing DemiVeemon, and held up his D-3. "Digiport open!" He was gone in a flash.

T. K. likewise held up his device to the screen. "We'd better catch up to him before he tries taking on the Emperor all by himself."

Cody gently picked up Upamon and followed suit. "Digiport open!" Both boys disappeared into the computer.

The older Digidestined were rubbing stars from their eyes because of the brightness of the flashes. "A little bit more warning next time please!" whimpered Mimi.

As Kari took out her pink D-3, Tai called out to her. "Kari, before you go…"

Her amber eyes turned towards his window.

"Just remember, stay strong, no matter what."

She nodded to him, and the remaining two girls followed the ritual to take them to the Digital World.

* * *

The coordinates on their screens led them to the edge of a forest, which opened up to an expansive grassy meadow free of Control Towers. Luckily this part was uninhabited by any digimon so they wouldn't have to worry about accidental casualties. This area also lacked any landmarks or other obstacles save for the forest, which could be a good or bad thing depending on what kind of digimon they were up against.

Since the Digidestined had arrived early, they split up and scouted the area, checking for any traps or other surprises the Emperor might have in store.

"Looks like nothing unusual around here," Yolei commented, riding on the back of Aquilamon with Kari through the forest. She turned them around back to the clearing.

They met back up with Cody, T. K., and Ankylomon, who were in charge of searching through the meadow. "Nothing here," Cody yelled at them while they hovered above. "It's almost time anyway. Where's Davis?"

No sooner had he said that when a blue and white digimon dive-bombed toward them from high in the sky. "Yahooooo!" Davis yelled.

Aquilamon flew out of the way just in time for ExVeemon to zoom past them and pull up at the last second right over Ankylomon's ducked head. He performed a single loop de loop before settling back down on the ground with his partner hanging on his back.

"That was so awesome! Man, I miss coming back here and having fun like that!" Davis dropped down to the ground and high-fived his digimon.

"Davis, would you grow up already?" Yolei had jumped down next to him and shouted into his ear, which made the teenage boy jump a meter into the air out of surprise.

Aquilamon touched down close by and let Kari off his back. Before her DNA-digivolving partner could let out another outburst, she turned to Davis and asked, "Did you see anything from up there?" The girl pointed to the sky.

"Nah, not really, just a couple of clouds, some Birdramon flying a long ways off, Ken heading this way…"

He was interrupted by the sound of maniacal laughter coming from the forest. A familiar teenage boy with spiky indigo hair and gold shades rode an Airdramon over the treetops in their direction. However, his outfit had changed slightly since they last saw him. Instead of a two-pronged cape, he wore a half-circle one, still midnight blue and trimmed with gold. His navy bodysuit seemed to be more skin-tight and lost all traces of white. Instead, two long patches of black replaced them, running down each of his sides with three horizontal gold stripes across them. He still donned the black boots and gloves, heavy metal wrist and ankle bands, and gold shoulder pads.

The Emperor mentally commanded the banded digimon to hover mere meters from the group of Digidestined. "Welcome, my old _friends_. I take it you've been well since last I saw you." He smirked as he eyed each one of them, a lavender-haired girl with a scowl in particular. "My dear, Inoue, I believe that look suits you. You should wear it more often," he said in a smooth voice.

"Bite me, Emperor!" she spat.

"Maybe some other time, but thanks for the offer." Calmly, he looked back at the rest of the group. "Where's your champion, or should I say, ultimate?"

"Right here, you creep!" Davis held up his blue D-3, which glowed with energy.

"ExVeemon digivolve to… AeroVeedramon!" The giant turquoise digimon took to the sky above them.

Davis shot a proud look at his former friend. "Your turn!"

"Hmph." The Digimon Emperor swept part of his cape over his shoulder as he held out one arm. "I summon… Angewomon!"

Out from the trees burst the angel digimon. With a Dark Band around her right feathered boot, she swiftly flew towards her master and took her place above and behind him.

As the Digidestined let out a collective gasp, the Emperor cackled once more. "Oh, did I forget to mention that this would be a fight to the death? So sorry, must have slipped my mind during my worldwide debut."

Kari could feel her legs growing weak, her knees wanting to buckle under her, but she stood firm. Her brother's words rang loud in her mind.

A brief look of disappointment seemed to cross the Emperor's face as his gaze fell on the Digidestined of Light who appeared unfazed. But he quickly turned away from her to his opponent. "I hope this doesn't bother you, Motomiya. It shouldn't really since digimon can be reborn. So what's one recycled life compared to the fate of the Digital World?"

Davis stole a glance at his crush, who solemnly nodded to him. "Fine, have it your way!" he growled to the tyrant.

"Excellent. Then let us begin." Pointing at the other ultimate-level digimon, he commanded, "Angewomon, kill him."

Quick as a falcon, she closed the distance between her and AeroVeedramon with her bare fist outstretched. The dragon digimon easily dodged the punch, and the ones that followed in quick succession. Shooting higher up into the sky, a glowing V formed between his spread wings.

"V-Wing Blade!"

Angewomon shot up above the flying V-shaped beam of energy and formed a bow with one hand.

"Celestial Arrow!"

AeroVeedramon dove to avoid it and flew back up with a glowing fist.

"Magnum Crush!"

Angewomon pulled up both legs at the last minute, making the powerful punch miss her.

Below, the Digimon Emperor golf clapped. "I see you're holding back and focusing your efforts on the Dark Band. But let me tell you this now: being soft won't save your Digital World."

While his momentum trapped AeroVeedramon in the follow-through of his punch, Angewomon landed a solid kick to the back of the digimon's horned head. This sent him tumbling down to the ground. The angel digimon didn't hesitate to follow up her attack with another Celestial Arrow. AeroVeedramon stabilized himself in time to fly out of harm's way.

The battle continued like this, with Angewomon constantly on the offensive and AeroVeedramon dodging and focusing his attacks on her band. It was clear that both digimon would have been equally matched had one not resolved to restrain himself.

After a few minutes, the Digimon Emperor let out a yawn. "I had hoped this match would have been a little more interesting. But I grow weary of this, so let's just cut to the chase." He pulled out a Dark Band from behind his back and tossed it at Aquilamon, who was watching on the ground next to Ankylomon and the rest of the teenagers. The avian digimon didn't react in time and the device clamped onto his left leg.

Yolei watched in shocked horror as her digimon's eyes began to glow red. "Aquilamon, no!"

The Digimon Emperor pulled out a black chip from inside of his belt and commanded his new acquisition to come take it from his hand with his beak. He then sent Aquilamon in the direction of the battling ultimate-level digimon above, while down below, Yolei screamed obscenities at the dictator.

In the meantime, he telepathically ordered Angewomon to maneuver so that AeroVeedramon's back was turned towards them. As soon as he got a clear shot, Aquilamon zoomed past him and tossed the chip onto the blue digimon's back right between his wings. A shock suddenly ripped through AeroVeedramon's body. He found he couldn't move anything, most importantly his wings.

"You cheater, Ichijouji!" Cody glowered at the smirking dictator. As the Digidestined continued to cry fowl at the Digimon Emperor, the dragon digimon dropped to the grassy field below like a ball of lead and formed a mini crater where he landed.

"AeroVeedramon!" Davis raced to check on his partner. T. K. and Kari followed, hot on his heels.

Yolei turned from the sight of the fallen digimon and glared at the Emperor. "What did you do to him?"

"Just a little modification of the toy I used on Daemon," he explained. "It's the same chip I used to freeze him up, but with one slight difference."

* * *

"AeroVeedramon, are you all right?" Kari asked when she got to the edge of the crater.

The ultimate-level digimon strained to even grimace. "I… can't… move…" he mumbled.

"Hang on, buddy, I'll get that do-hickey off you!" The goggle-headed teenager was about to climb down, when something above them caught their attention.

"Heaven's Charm!" Angewomon shot a pink arch of light from her spreading hands.

T. K. had just enough time to grab Davis and pull him away from the blast while Kari likewise dove to the side.

The attack hit AeroVeedramon in the chest, and the digimon let out a stifled roar, unable to move his jaws to scream in pain.

* * *

Meanwhile, the Digimon Emperor continued his explanation. "It has the ability to enhance the power of a vaccine digimon built right into the chip. No more need for a catalyst like Daemon's viral power." He beamed with pride at Yolei. "So what do you think, my sweet?"

This infuriated the teenager in question. "I don't know how you get off acting like that towards me, but cut it out right now. My boyfriend disappeared the moment you took over."

The Digimon Emperor feigned shock. "Oh that's quite a stab to the heart, my dear. You mortally wound me. Do you not recognize the love of your life in me since we merged together quite willingly?"

"Ken would never!" She was so angry, tears were starting to form in her eyes. "You tricked him, you monster!"

"Well, that would explain why this Emperor is a bit different…" Cody muttered to himself.

"In time, you'll come to love me again, my pet. But for now, you're missing the show." He pointed towards Angewomon, who had pulled out her bow once more. Then under his breath, he muttered more to himself, "Say 'good-bye' to your ultimate, _Motomiya_."

* * *

The angel digimon hovered closer and took aim at her fallen enemy. One more attack would finish the job.

All of a sudden, a teenage girl slid down to the dragon digimon and stood up in front of him, her hands outstretched and bravely looking into Angewomon's masked face.

"Don't do it, Angewomon! He's your friend. Don't you remember me? It's Kari!"

The ultimate-level digimon didn't waver and continued to pull back on the arrow she'd formed. Off to the side, a blond teenager was fighting to restrain another boy from jumping down to join her.

"Please, Angewomon, remember. Remember Tai, and Yolei and Davis. We're all your friends. Remember everything we've been through. Remember Wizardmon! You don't have to do this!"

"Kari, get away from there! There's no getting through to her. T. K., let me go!" Davis continued to squirm out of the other boy's grasp.

The Eighth Child could have sworn she saw something trickle down the digimon's cheek as she let go of her arrow, sending it flying towards her. Kari squeezed her eyes shut. The attack hit her dead on, creating an explosion of light that engulfed them.

* * *

G: That was a semi-not-really cliffhanger there.

Gaia: Eh, this chapter was starting to get a bit lengthy so I had to cut it off somewhere.

G: Speaking of cutting off… *snatches bottle of milk away from Gwen*

Gwen: Hey, I was drinking that!

G: You're the only one I know that gets drunk off of milk.

Gaia: Why are you drowning your sorrows anyway?

Gwen: When you're psychiatrist, you get to hear a lot of sad stories. It gets really depressing.

Gaia: There, there. *pats* By the way, are you still Ken's psychiatrist?

Gwen: Yes, I can't believe he hired me back since he's suing all of us.

Gaia: Interesting… I think I have an idea…


	11. Trial by Light

There's No Rest for the Wicked

Disclaimer: See Chapter 10 line 2.

Chapter 11 - Trial by Light

Yolei watched in horror at the events that had transpired. She could hear Kari shouting to Angewomon, but despite that, the digimon still shot her own partner. An explosion of white light that centered at Kari spread in the shape of a hemisphere, engulfing the girl and the two digimon. T. K. had pulled Davis down at the last minute, most likely against the latter boy's wishes.

Tears starting to roll down her eyes, the bearer of the Digieggs of Love and Sincerity fell to her knees and stared at the ground. This couldn't be happening. The Digimon Emperor couldn't be winning like this.

"Yolei…" Cody started.

The girl shook her head. Nothing he said would make her feel any better.

"Yolei, look!" Cody dropped down to her level and pointed up in the sky where Angewomon had hovered. The light had just faded and revealed a long, pink creature with four legs and multiple wings. There was no sign of a Dark Band anywhere on this digimon.

The two got up and ran in the direction of the rest of their friends, leaving the Digimon Emperor wringing his wound-up whip in fury. He ordered the Airdramon to turn around and head back to base.

"Oh no you don't! Megaton Press!" Ankylomon jumped high into the air above the Emperor and his Airdramon. The teenage boy had to hang onto his ride and quickly maneuver it out of the way before the massive digimon came crashing down, intending to crush them. Instead, Ankylomon just clipped the Airdramon's tail before he landed back on the grassy ground.

"Aquilamon, take care of him!" The bird digimon came swooping down to cover the tyrant's retreat. Mentally, the Emperor summoned his back-up plan and left the Digidestined and their digimon to their fate.

* * *

Davis rubbed dirt out of his eyes. He ought to punch T. K.'s lights out for what he pulled. But the goggle-headed teenager got no further in his thoughts as his jaw dropped at the sight of the new digimon. "What the heck is that?"

T. K. was already scrambling up to the edge of the crater. "Kari?! Kari!"

"Relax, guys, I'm fine," he could hear the girl call back. Davis bolted up to join the Digidestined of Hope.

There she stood right where she had been before, unscathed.

Both teenagers scrambled over the edge and slid down to where she was. They could hear Yolei and Cody following shortly after.

"Guys, meet Magnadramon, Gatomon's mega form," Kari introduced them, almost like they had been old friends.

Davis couldn't stop looking back and forth between the digimon and the girl. "Wha? How…?"

"Of course, why didn't I think of it sooner?" Cody pondered as he walked up behind the two boys. All eyes turned to him now. "Kari's Digiegg is the one of Light. So Angewomon's arrow of light must have powered up Kari's D-3 and made her go mega."

"It's almost like when Angemon and Angewomon shot arrows at our brothers to make their digimon warp digivolve…" T. K. reminisced.

Looking the large digimon over, Yolei remarked, "The power of the digivolution must have broken the Dark Band in the process."

A series of muffled yells made the teenagers turn toward the still paralyzed AeroVeedramon.

"Oh, sorry, buddy!" Davis rubbed the back of his head and ran over to his partner. Magnadramon swooped down and helped rolled the dragon digimon over so that Davis could remove the chip that clung to his back like a bur.

"Yeow, man, that feels better." AeroVeedramon shook himself and flexed his arms and legs. "And Magnadramon, you sure pack a punch as Angewomon. Take it easy a little next time, will ya?"

Floating back to her partner, the mega-level digimon looked over at the turquoise digimon and replied, "Sorry, AeroVeedramon, I don't even remember what I was doing until right before I hit Kari."

"Hey, now that we have Magnadramon back, let's go beat up that stinkin' Emp—" Davis didn't get to finish as a round shadow passed over their group.

Cody's jaw dropped in surprise as he recognized the controlled mega-level digimon. "The Emperor's Ghoulmon? I knew he wasn't going to play fair."

"Death Arrow!" The aforementioned digimon fired black projectiles from each of its hands. One beam went straight for the group of Digidestined huddled around Kari and the other headed towards Davis.

"Fire Tornado!" Magnadramon shot a spiraling cone of flames from her mouth and neutralized one part of the attack before it could reach her partner.

"Davis, look out!" In a flash, AeroVeedramon shielded the Digidestined and took the brunt of the second beam. After a howl of pain, a white light surrounded him, and his form began to shrink. Soon after, a sky-colored blob fell down to the ground.

"Chibomon!" Davis ran over to catch his fresh-level digimon.

In an instant, Magnadramon was on the offensive, chasing after Ghoulmon in the air and spewing breaths of fire at him. Both digimon performed aerial maneuvers so quickly that the teenagers could barely keep up.

"Death Arrow!"

The pink digimon easily dodged these and mounted her own attack. "Dragon Fire!" Streaks of energy appeared out of nowhere from above the controlled digimon. Ghoulmon just barely made it out of the storm of pink lightning, but the side of his head met with a blow from Magnadramon's suddenly-appearing tail.

The humans down below cheered.

"Go get him, Magnadramon! Isn't she great, Aquila—?" Yolei stopped short. She'd totally forgotten her partner had fallen under the Emperor's control. She whipped her head in the direction of where he had previously stood, only to see a worn-out Ankylomon battling her equally tired digimon. "Oh no, Aquilamon!"

Magnadramon, too, looked in the direction of her digimon companions. "Dragon Fire!" She focused the attack on the Dark Band that enslaved Aquilamon. Ghoulmon took advantage of this momentary distraction to fire an Explosion Eye, which clipped the pink dragon digimon's wings. The battle between the vaccine and virus digimon was back on.

"Blast Ri—huh?" The band on Aquilamon's leg shattered before the bird digimon could follow through on his attack. "What's going on?"

"'Bout time you came to your senses," Ankylomon said, relief evident in his voice. "I was afraid I'd have to clobber you some more."

The bird digimon barely heard him as a single thought came to his mind. "Yolei…" He spied his partner in the distance and flew over to her. The digimon remembered all too well what happened the last time he had been controlled. "Are you all right? Did he hurt you?"

"No, no, nothing like that," she reassured. "Although I can't say the same for AeroVeedramon and Ankylomon." She looked over her shoulder at the worn-out Chibomon Davis cradled in his arms.

By this time, Ankylomon had lumbered over to join them. "I'll say, but get me some cookies from Yolei's store when we get back and we'll call it even."

Yolei and Aquilamon sweatdropped.

Cody ran to his partner digimon and gave him a relieved hug before asking, "What happened to the Digimon Emperor?"

"He made like thunder and bolted," the yellow digimon replied, nuzzling his human friend's hand. "I tried to stop him but he made Aquilamon keep me busy."

T. K. was already typing away at his D-terminal. "Tai's wondering how it's going. He says the Control Towers are still up. His last message, out of twenty, was sent five minutes ago."

"So the Emperor went back on his word, even though we technically won despite all his cheating," Cody commented.

"You can tell him we're fine for now, but we're still dealing with a situation—although you don't have to send that to him as many times as he did," Kari said to T. K.

The Digidestined of Hope finished up his typing and turned his attention back to the sky, where all he could see were blurs of pink and black. "Sent. But how long do you think Magnadramon can keep this up?"

"I don't know, they seem equally matched…" Kari answered. "If there was only some way to give Magnadramon some kind of boost."

"Yeah, but it's not like we're Ken and have a bunch of cheating toys up our sleeve," Davis scoffed. "Like this thingamabob." He opened up a hand to reveal the Emperor's black chip.

"Wait, that's it!" Yolei exclaimed. She snatched the device from Davis and examined it for damage. "If we can get this on Ghoulmon, it'll freeze him up and enhance Magnadramon's power against him, provided it still works."

"I think you can leave that to me," Aquilamon beamed and took the chip from Yolei in his beak.

"Hey, at least we know you can do it," Yolei giggled.

Her partner digimon blinked. "Why do I get this sudden feeling of deja vu?" he questioned rhetorically as he took to the air.

"Magnadramon!" Kari tried to get her digimon's attention. The pink creature looked at them out of the corner of her eye and spied Aquilamon flying up into the clouds and carrying something small. She instantly guessed their plan. Without warning, she caught Ghoulmon in a tight grasp with her legs and wrapped her serpentine body around him.

The Demon Lord digimon was caught off guard by the seemingly useless move.

"Now, Aquilamon!"

The champion-level digimon swooped out from the clouds and planted the black chip right between his red, bat-like wings and took off as fast as the wind would let him. Ghoulmon moaned with pain as the chip started taking effect. Magnadramon let him fall to the ground and powered up her attack.

"Dragon Flame!" Energy bolts rained down on her plummeting enemy. He crashed to the ground below, with a force that shook the ground the Digidestined stood on. As he stared angrily back at her with his single eye, she dove towards him, her ferocious-looking mouth wide open. "Fire Tornado!"

The controlled mega-level digimon was engulfed in flames, destroying the Dark Band enslaving it. From afar, the group of teenagers cheered along with their digimon. The battle was won, for now.

Kari ran over to hug her partner as she de-digivolved back to her rookie form. "I missed you so much, Salamon."

"I'm sorry I put you through all this, Kari," her partner said, hugging her tightly with her front paws.

"It wasn't your fault, I'm just glad you're back."

Ghoulmon blinked its huge eye, which looked around at its surroundings. Before it could say anything, a white light surrounded it, and shortly after in its place stood a DemiDevimon.

T. K. slowly approached the rookie-level digimon. "Are you okay?"

The black digimon looked at the humans, then at all their digimon, and finally at himself. "What did you do to me? I'm so weak now!" With that, it flew off crying towards the forest. "You big meanies will pay for this one day!"

All the Digidestined and their digimon sweatdropped. "That went over well…" Cody commented dryly.

"I'm sure he'll get over it," Yolei added.

"Can we go home now?" Davis whined, followed by a big yawn. "I'm beat."

The light blue blob in his arms chirped, "_You're_ tired? What about us?"

"Hey, I didn't say that you guys weren't too!"

All the human teenagers but Davis laughed.

Yolei turned to look at the orange sun setting in the distance. "I guess that's all we can do today." Aquilamon de-digivolved and flew into her arms, and Ankylomon returned to Armadillomon at Cody's side. "Guess I'll see you guys tonight in the normal place?"

They all nodded to her and started their trek back to the Digiport that led to the computer lab. Everyone had a feeling the Digimon Emperor was only getting started with them.

* * *

Night had fallen over the prefecture of Odaiba. Lights were slowly going out in apartment building windows, in preparation for the long rest their residents would need for school or work the next day. The lights of three windows in a certain apartment building weren't going out any time soon though.

"Will you be warm enough here, Wormmon?" the tall teenage girl asked the small insect digimon while gently placing him in the corner of her bed.

"Yes, thank you, Yolei." Wormmon curled up alongside an already snoozing Poromon. "I really do appreciate everything you've done for me."

She then pulled her blanket over the both of them. "Don't sweat it, least I can do until Ken comes to his senses. Besides, Ken's parents have enough to worry about without having to figure out how to take care of a digimon." This was followed by a pat on the small creature's head. "Good night, Wormmon."

"Good night, Yolei, don't stay up too late."

The lavender-haired girl waved him off. "Yeah, yeah, don't worry about me. I'm just going to stay up late enough to see what Izzy wants to show us. I'll be in bed in no time."

"If you say so…" Soon enough, the green digimon was fast asleep as well.

Yolei gave a long sigh as she sat down in front of the desktop computer and started up their usual chat program. As soon as she'd gotten home, they all received a message from Izzy saying he made a breakthrough. Actually, two emails, but one was blank with just a simple program attached. He said he would explain in their chatroom later that night.

_**yoyoyoyoleidayo**__ has joined the chat._

_**CompMaster:**__ Prodigious, Yolei's here so we can start._

_**yoyoyoyoleidayo:**__ hey all_

_**davisthecourageous:**__ this better be good izzy i'm beat after that fight today_

_**davisthecourageous:**__ chibomon says he is too_

_**CompMaster**__: OK, OK. As you all know, I sent the five of you a copy of the latest program I've been working on._

_**Wingsofhope**__: is it supposed to do nothing, Izzy? i tried opening it earlier and zilch._

_**CompMaster:**__ It should activate from your D-terminal once you're in the Digital World. But let me start off with a little background…_

_**CompMaster:**__ As you know, just like the Emperor's old Control Spires, these towers are used to transmit the power of his dark D-3, which prevents digivolution._

_**CompMaster: **__But I've been tracking the frequencies being emitted from the Control Towers. _

_**yoyoyoyoleidayo: **__waitaminute that's right, it was really ken's d3 that stopped digivolution _

_**KendoKid: **__So why was ExVeemon able to digivolve in the Emperor's base when he had his dark D-3 on him?_

_**Angel_of_Light: **__Or when Angewomon digivolved to Magnadramon?_

_**yoyoyoyoleidayo:**__ well the base thing could have happened when ken was fighting his dark side like wormmon mentioned and caused a lapse in its power. that'd explain how wormmon digivolved_

The teenage girl thought back to today's battle and just remembered something she hadn't realized at the time. When he pulled aside his cape to summon Angewomon…

_**yoyoyoyoleidayo: **__and now that I think about it, during the battle today ken didn't have his dark d3 on him at all, which is really strange for him_

_**KendoKid: **__Maybe he's using it as a power source in his base like his Crest used to be?_

_**CompMaster:**__ I'll have to test those theories later, but can I get back to the program I worked so hard on?!_

_**yoyoyoyoleidayo:**__ ^^;; go ahead izzy_

_**CompMaster:**__ Thank you. This program should transmit a series of signals that will counteract those that prevent digivolution and nullify them._

_**davisthecourageous:**__ …which means?_

_**CompMaster: **__*sigh* Your D-terminals will create a dampening field that will allow digivolution._

_**KendoKid:**__ Really?_

_**Wingsofhope:**__ that's great, Izzy!_

_**davisthecourageous: **__dampening? does that mean they'll get wet?_

_**CompMaster: **__Just a sec. It only has a range of 1 km, so I recommend your digimon not straying far from you. And…I haven't tested it yet, which is why I've only sent it to you 5 so far._

_**yoyoyoyoleidayo**__: we should try it out first thing tomorrow after school then._

_**Angel_of_Light:**__ Izzy, you're a genius!_

_**CompMaster:**__ Actually genius would have been to wait until tomorrow but I was so excited I couldn't go to sleep._

_**Angel_of_Light:**__ ^^;;;_

_**WingsofHope: **__^^;;;_

_**davisthecourageous:**__ hey i can do that too! ^^;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;_

_**yoyoyoyoleidayo**__: davis… -_-_

_**KendoKid: **__Well, good night everyone. I'll see you tomorrow in the Digital World._

_**KendoKid **__has gone offline._

_**yoyoyoyoleidayo**__: me too, wormmon's already mothering me_

With that, she closed her chat program and put the computer to sleep. She couldn't wait to see the Emperor's face if this program worked. The teenager looked over at the two digimon sleeping peacefully on her bed. More importantly, she couldn't wait for the day that the Ken she loved would come back to her.

* * *

Gwen: So uh, Ken, let's try some sleep therapy for this session.

Ken: Sleep therapy? What's that?

Gwen: *hands him a tiny white pill* Take this sedative to help you fall asleep, and when you wake up, tell me all about your dreams.

Ken: How about I just talk about what I dreamed last night. There was a dragon and a rainbow pony…

Gwen: Er…you might not remember that clearly, and I need a fresh memory for better accuracy.

Ken: *shrugs* Okay, whatever, here goes. *takes the pill and falls asleep in 5 minutes*

Gaia: *pokes head in* Is he out?

Gwen: Yes, all clear. You can bring it in.

G: *wheels in a huge machine with cords dangling out of it* Hee hee hee….


End file.
